NDPS Act undertrial candidate new Sangrur village sarpanch

Patiala: An Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker Gurjeet Singh, a 43-year-old resident of Raidharana village in Lehra, Sangrur district, who is currently incarcerated under the NDPS Act, has emerged victorious in the sarpanch elections held on Tuesday. Despite his legal predicament, Gurjeet secured 1,751 votes of 3,100 cast in the village, which boasts a voter base of approximately 3,700.
Gurjeet’s family has come forward to assert his innocence, claiming that he was unjustly implicated in the drugs case in June this year.They maintain that Gurjeet, along with a few other individuals, was falsely accused of smuggling poppy husk. Prior to his arrest, Gurjeet had been actively engaged in village development initiatives for the past one and a half years, during which he had purportedly invested around Rs 15 lakh of his own resources.
Gurvinder Kaur, Gurjeet’s wife, actively campaigned on his behalf during the election period along with a tractor which was also an election symbol allotted to him. Gurjeet had campaigned for Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer in the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Rampal Singh, a relative of Gurjeet and a polling agent, further elaborated on the circumstances surrounding the case.
Rampal emphasised that Gurjeet had no prior history of involvement in any drug-related offenses. “Although Gurjeet is an AAP worker and a close supporter of AAP MP from Sangrur, in our village even supporters and workers of other parties had supported Gurjeet as they knew he was falsely implicated in the case. Gurjeet owns a lock-tiles factory and is a contractor for road construction work. Before this, he served as a soldier in the Army for 16 years. The villagers stood by us and gave a thumping victory to Gurjeet. His two rivals bagged 1,142 and 107 votes, respectively, whereas 65 votes were NOTA. All the winning nine members of our village panchayat are also supporters of AAP,” said Rampal.