AAP protests across Punjab against defectors

AAP leaders and workers protested at Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Jalandhar, Barnala, Sangrur, Fazilka, Bathinda and Mohali, calling the seven Rajya Sabha MPs who quit the party a betrayal of Punjab’s mandate. Demonstrations included burning effigies and chanting slogans against the defectors. In Barnala, protesters gathered on Sanghera road outside the Trident Group factory owned by Rajinder Gupta, one of the defectors. The seven defectors, named as Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal (from Delhi), and another, were noted to have left AAP, with Chadha, Pathak and Mittal having formally joined the BJP so far. Cabinet minister and Lehragaga MLA Barinder Kumar Goyal claimed the party had faced ups and downs but its stature remained intact. In Pathankot, minister Lal Chand Kataruchakk criticized the defectors, saying they were elected to represent Punjab’s interests but stabbed the state and the party in the back. Bathinda protests saw MLAs Jagroop Singh and Master Jagsir Singh carrying placards against the MPs at Fire Brigade Chowk, and senior leaders Neel Garg, Navdeep Singh Jeeda and Rakesh Puri joined the demonstrations in the city. In Fazilka, AAP legislator Narinder Pal Singh Sawna led a protest denouncing the MPs as opportunists and “gaddar”.