AAP Bathinda Urban MLA Gill slams party over fielding Padamjit in ward no. 48 bypoll

In fact, he had represented this ward for 7 consecutive times. In Ward No. 48 by-election, AAP’s Padamjit Mehta defeated party rebel Balwinder Singh Binder by 829 votes.

Unhappy with the AAP for giving the ticket to Mehta instead of his loyalist Binder, Gill sided with Binder and campaigned for him.

“Arora shaab (AAP president Aman Arora inducted Binder into the party and later even gave him the ticket to contest from ward number 48, and then another person came with a ticket from Delhi (Padamjit Mehta). I supported Binder, and I state it on record,” Gill said in the FB post.

“My party (AAP) talks about honesty, and to win this ward, money, power, and other methods were used by the party candidate. If we want to save politics, we need to stay true to our principles. Winning or losing in an election is part of the game, but one shouldn’t dare to be upright always. I will do politics with honesty as long as I am in politics,” Gill stated in the FB post.

“Whether I do politics or not, I can’t be labelled dishonest. Hence, when the party changed the ticket all of a sudden from Binder to Mehta, I preferred to walk with Binder,” he added.

The meeting held at Gill’s residence was attended by five AAP councillors and a few other AAP leaders. A senior AAP leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “One gets upset at times when a ticket is changed at the last moment.” However, when contacted, AAP state spokesperson Neel Garg refused to comment on this issue. “I am not aware of any meeting; hence, I don’t know what exactly the MLA said.”