Akali Dal Chandigarh candidate Hardeep Singh quits party: ‘ehni berukhi party di’

“For the last 15 days, I was going from house to house and working hard… Is this the way a candidate is treated by the party when one is nominated from a constituency like Chandigarh?” he quipped.

Asked if he would join the BJP, Hardeep Singh said, “Nahi ghar baithunga, koi party nahi join karunga… bass seva karunga logon ki (Will sit at home and not join any party… will only serve people.)”

Hardeep Singh is a sitting councillor from Buterla in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. Along with Hardeep Singh, several other functionaries and office bearers of the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) Chandigarh unit also left the party.

The filing of nominations for the Chandigarh seat is slated to start on Tuesday and end on May 14.

About Hardeep Singh

Hardeep Singh, 41, a three-time councillor, was to face the BJP’s Sanjay Tandon and Congress’s Manish Tewari. This was the first time that the SAD decided to contest the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat.

SAD chief Sukhbir Badal had announced Hardeep Singh as the party’s Chandigarh candidate on April 22.

Hardeep Singh’s father Gurnam Singh and brother Malkiat Singh were elected as councillors of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (CMC) earlier.

However, they both passed away while serving their terms. Hardeep Singh became a councillor in 2015 (after his brother’s death). He also became the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the CMC.

In 2018, Hardeep Singh was selected as the chief of SAD Chandigarh. He runs a tent business.