From student Cong leader to AAP candidate, this 35-year-old took down SAD president

Jalalabad voters proved it right as they chose AAP’s Jagdeep Goldy Kamboj, (35) over Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Goldy, who had declared assets worth just Rs 3 crore, defeated the veteran politician, who has assets worth Rs 202 crore, by a margin of 30,930 votes.

Kamboj has a long association with Congress and was the general secretary of youth Congress and even the incharge of Haryana and J&K youth Congress before he quit the party in 2019. He had contested as an Independent candidate in the 2019 Jalalabad bypoll after being denied ticket by Congress but had received only 5,000 votes.

People in Jalalabad, however, said that Kamboj has come a long way from being a youth leader, who staged dharnas and opposed to Kejriwal’s Punjab visit in 2016, to joining the AAP in February 2020, getting ticket and defeating a stalwart by a huge marjin.

Jalalabad has, however, never been Sukhbir’s only option. While Sukhbir became deputy CM after winning the 2009 bypoll from Jalalabad, earlier he was MP from Faridkot. He later went on to win the 2012 poll to be the deputy CM and again the 2017 poll to be in the opposition. But, he resigned from Jalalabad in 2019 to contest election from Ferozepur parliament seat, which he won as well and in the bypoll, Jalalabad was won by Raminder Awla from Congress. Awla stayed away from the contest this time. Echoing the mood, Gurinder Singh, an AAP supporter said, “Designations, assets don’t matter when people think of badlaav. Goldy was active while Sukhbir visited only twice.”