Mohinder Singh Kaypee, a former Jalandhar Congress MP, visits Sukhbir Badal and might join Akali Dal

Mohinder Singh Kaypee, a former chairman of the PPCC and a former Jalandhar Congress MP, visited SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Friday, stoking rumors that he would join the party and run for office.

Kaypee acknowledged that he had seen Sukhbir, but he said that his wife’s illness prevented him from running in the legislative elections this time. She is recuperating after spending 15 to 20 days at the PGI-Chandigarh. At this point, I cannot afford to change the party or the contest,” he said.

But according to some accounts, he even traveled to Delhi last week to meet with the central leadership and stake his claim to the Congress ticket from Hoshiarpur, where he ran for office in 2014 but was defeated by Vijay Sampla of the BJP. He had been a candidate for the Congress seat in the Adampur Assembly in 2022, but Sukhwinder Kotli had defeated him at the last minute.

It is said that the Akali leaders were optimistic about the reports of their meetings with Kaypee.

Being a devoted devotee of the Radha Soami Dera at Beas gives Kaypee an advantage over others in Jalandhar. The leaders of Akali believe that he might at least partially offset the defeat in Adampur that the party suffered when Pawan Tinu switched to the Aam Aadmi Party as its Jalandhar candidate. Additionally, he has strong ties in the metropolitan areas where the Akali Dal is now behind.

Sukhbir Badal, meanwhile, plans to camp in Jalandhar till Saturday afternoon. He has scheduled daily talks with the leaders of the Jalandhar Central, Jalandhar Cantt Assembly, Adampur, and Kartarpur constituencies.