Out of Cabinet, Dhaliwal says up to party leaders to decide future role

The departure of Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, one of the most firebrand ministers of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, from the Council of Ministers may not signal the end of his political innings.

Sources in AAP said as the party gets “battle ready” for the 2027 Assembly poll, Dhaliwal would be used to build political narrative in the run-up to the elections. An indication to this effect was reportedly been given by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today.

In the recent days, he has remained one of the shriller voices to create a narrative against SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia, while defending why the AAP government arrested him. Interestingly, Dhaliwal has often been touted “Majhe da Jarnail” — a title previously accorded to Majithia during the SAD-BJP tenure from 2007-2017.

However, last three years of his political journey have not been very smooth. Dhaliwal, a close friend of CM Mann, was an American citizen. He gave up his US citizenship and came back to Punjab almost a decade ago to make his mark in politics.

He unsuccessfully contested the 2019 General Election as AAP candidate from Amritsar, before he tasted political success in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha poll and got elected as an MLA from Ajnala. Dhaliwal was inducted into Cabinet as Agriculture and Rural Development Minister. For a little over a year, he handled both departments, till he was suddenly stripped of these.

Later, he was given charge of NRI Affairs Department and Department of Administrative Reforms, which the government accepted that the department did not exist. In a notification earlier this year, the government said the Department of Administrative Reforms was non-existent and Dhaliwal would continue to hold the charge of just NRI Affairs Department.

However, Dhaliwal appeared to take his exit from the Cabinet in his stride. He said he had worked to the best of his abilities as a minister and would follow the directions of his party leaders, CM Mann and national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, on his next role.

“I am happy that as a Rural Development and Panchayat Minister, I managed to get 11,000 acres of land worth Rs 2,700 crore freed from encroachers — a fear no one in any state has managed to achieve. As NRI Affairs Minister, I held nine NRI milnis and managed to resolve 6,000 cases of the NRIs, including property, and matrimonial disputes,” said Dhaliwal.

“My only unaccomplished work is that the Agriculture Policy of Punjab, that was mostly prepared during my time as a minister, is yet to be fine-tuned and implemented. I am sure both Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian and new NRI Affairs Minister Sanjeev Arora will take the work forward,” he said.

Punjab