May 1 (Punjab Khabarnama) : Former Congress MLA Dalvir Singh Goldy, who quit the Congress over denial of the party ticket from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat, joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday.
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann inducted Goldy into the ruling party. Cabinet minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, who is the AAP candidate for Sangrur, was also present.
Welcoming Goldy into the party fold, Mann said he is a young and hardworking leader. “We need such honest and hardworking people to realise our dream of making Punjab rangla (vibrant),” he said.
A former MLA from Dhuri, Goldy was a contender for the Congress ticket from the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency but the party decided to field senior leader Sukhpal Khaira, a three-time MLA from Bholath, from the seat. Goldy was upset over being denied the Congress ticket and quit the party.
In a terse resignation letter to Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Tuesday, Goldy said he was disappointed with the state leadership and was resigning from the party’s primary membership. “With a heavy heart, I am making this decision. My family and close friends know how difficult it was for me to take this decision,” he wrote, sharing his resignation letter on Facebook.
Goldy won the Dhuri assembly seat in 2017, but he then lost to Bhagwant Mann, a two-time MP from Sangrur, in 2022 by 58,206 votes. When Mann quit his Sangrur seat on getting elected to the Punjab assembly and becoming the chief minister, the Congress named Goldy the party candidate for the June 2022 byelection. He finished third with 11.21% votes behind Simranjit Singh Mann of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Gurmail Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party.