CHANDIGARH: Former Punjab Congress chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee on Monday ditched the party and entered the Lok Sabha fray from Jalandhar on SAD ticket, taking the number of turncoats in the NRI heartland to three.
BJP nominee Sushil Kumar Rinku (former AAP leader) and AAP’s Pawan Kumar Tinu (ex-SAD leader) are the two other defectors. In addition to them, in the fray is an outsider - Congress candidate (former CM Charanjit Singh Channi who earlier contested from Chamkaur Sahib Assembly constituency and shifted to Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.
Kaypee, a devout follower of the Radha Soami Dera at Beas, had recently met SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. He had gone to Delhi a few days back to meet the Congress leadership staking claim on the party ticket from Hoshiarpur, where he had contested in 2014 but was defeated by BJP’s Vijay Sampla.
In 2022, he was an aspirant from the Adampur Assembly seat but had lost the claim at the last moment to Sukhwinder Kotli, who emerged victorious. Kaypee happens to be a relative of Charanjit Singh Channi (whose nephew is wedded to Kaypee’s daughter).
Kaypee is the son of former minister Darshan Singh Kaypee who was killed by terrorists. Former chief parliamentary secretary and two-time MLA Pawan Kumar Tinu of Shiromani Akali Dal had recently joined AAP and was given the ticket by the ruling party. He was elected MLA from the Adampur in Jalandhar district in 2012 and 2017.
During Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypolls last year AAP inducted Sushil Rinku from Congress and made him the party candidate and he won and became MP from Jalandhar. On March 14, AAP had named Rinku as its candidate from Jalandhar.
However, Rinku quit the party on March 27 and joined the BJP which has also fielded him from the same constituency.
Meanwhile, the Congress gave the Jalandhar Lok Sabha ticket to former chief ministerChanni, who lost both the Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur assembly seats he contested in the 2022 polls as Chamkaur was his traditional seat. Hailing from the Scheduled Castes community Channi went on to become Punjab CM in 2021 after the Congress replaced him with Amarinder Singh. He represented the Chamkaur Sahib Assembly constituency in 2007, 2012 and 2017.