Insta
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday suspended former Rajouri Garden MLA Jarnail Singh from the primary membership of the party for his derogatory post on Hindu goddesses published on Facebook.
According to BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, the now deleted post insulted Lord Ram, Lord Shankar and Lord Brahma.
The decision to suspend Jarnail Singh was taken in the meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC).
The party in a statement said that it is a secular party and has no place for anyone who disrespects any religion.
The former Rajouri Garden MLA, denied the allegations and said that his son had accidentally pasted a post using the phone for online classes.
"Yesterday, my little son had taken my phone for his online class. He posted an image which I had deleted. I respect all the names of God Ram, Gobind, Keshav, Sadashiv and follow the principles of Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib," his statement claimed
Jarnail Singh, a former journalist, was catapulted to national limelight in 2009 for hurling a slipper at the then union cabinet minister and Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram for the party's role in orchestrating 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
In 2014, he was fielded as the AAP candidate the West DelhI Lok Sabha elections from West Delhi but lost to BJP’s Parvesh Verma.
Jarnail Singh was handpicked by party supremo Arvind Kejriwal to front-end the AAP's electoral foray in to Punjab. After resigning from Delhi assembly in 2017, he contested contest the Punjab assembly polls from against former CM Parkash Singh Badal. AAP, which was optimistic of capturing power in Punjab, finished third in the polls.
Jarnail Singh relationship with AAP leadership deteriorated after he criticised the party for negotiating with Congress for an electoral alliance in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He has been maintaining a low profile for the last few months.