MLA Arora ‘sidelined’, Bali calling shots in Jalandhar

Since fortnight, there has been a rejig of power in the Aam Aadmi Party in Jalandhar. While Jalandhar Central MLA Raman Arora, whose entire security had been withdrawn, has been attempting to resettle, whereas his rival Deepak Bali has been reportedly calling the shots.

Bali’s closeness in the inner circle of the Delhi’s AAP team is well-known. He is largely known to be operating through Vijay Nair, a close confidant of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal. Bali has been able to use all his contacts in the business, social, cultural and media circles in his favour, especially since the party had appointed him adviser to Punjab’s Tourism and Cultural Affairs Department two months back.

Bali is learnt to be eyeing the Jalandhar Central Assembly seat in the next elections. There has been a buzz that it is Bali, who has been trying to clip the wings of Arora and had even been lodging complaints against him. But he outrightly rejects any such reports, “I am not the kind of person to indulge in any kind of backstabbing. I just believe in doing good work and service for my people", he maintained.

Arora’s downfall had also been linked to the recent arrest of Assistant Town Planner of the Municipal Corporation Sukhdev Vashisht. While Arora has been denying having any link with Vashisht, Bali had posted a news clip of his arrest on the Facebook while writing, “This is the real style of AAP. The party wants to give corruption-free administration in Jalandhar".

He has even been sharing his personal phone number while posting that if any employee sought money from the public for getting work done, he could be directly called or messaged. Bali maintains, “I am against corruption and have hence shared my number publicly for anyone to approach me".

Post divesting of his security cover, Arora had toured to Delhi and Chandigarh to meet senior leaders of the party to sense if removal of security cover was an indication of a bigger action coming against him. He, however, has been calmly working in the city for the past one week and now been actively engaged in all political activities, including conducting ward-wise programmes under the banner of ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’, meeting people regarding their problems in his office and distributing old-age pension numbers to beneficiaries.

Amid these upheavels, AAP leader Pawan Tinu, who had unsuccessfully contested Jalandhar parliamentary polls last year, too seems to be getting a bit charged up. He has been given a new responsibility as the Chairman of the Punjab State Coorperative Agricultural Development Bank three days ago.

Jalandhar