A former two-term Congress MLA, Surinder Pal Singh, joined the Aam Aadmi Party here on Saturday, saying the work of the Delhi government was his impetus to make the switch.
Mr. Singh, who was the MLA for Timarpur Assembly constituency from 2003 till 2013, was the president of the Karawal Nagar district Congress unit. At a press conference here, Delhi AAP unit convenor Gopal Rai welcomed Mr. Singh and his supporters, who officially joined the party.
‘Working for everyone’
Mr. Singh said the Arvind Kejriwal government had been working for everyone in Delhi — the poor and the rich — and he wanted to support the same.
Mr. Singh, who came in third to sitting AAP MLA from Timarpur Pankaj Pushkar in the 2015 Assembly elections, could be considered for the ticket in 2020 as Mr. Pushkar has publicly rebelled against the AAP. Mr. Pushkar became one of the former AAP members to leave and establish Swaraj Abhiyan, along with Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.
Senior Delhi Congress leader Chattar Singh said the former MLA had joined the AAP due to “his greed for a ticket” and that the party was not worried.
“We have done well in Timarpur and don’t have any dearth of leaders. In the recent municipal polls, we won two out of the four wards under the Assembly seat,” he said.
Mr. Singh had started out as a municipal councillor in 2002. The next year he contested the Timarpur Assembly seat on a Congress ticket and won. He retained the seat in 2008, losing to the AAP in 2013 and 2015.