Former Punjab Congress chief, ex-MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee joins SAD

Chandigarh, Apr 22 (PTI) Former Punjab Congress chief and ex-MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee on Monday joined the Shiromani Akali Dal.

SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal visited Kaypee’s residence in Jalandhar to bring him into the party fold.

Badal also announced Kaypee as the party candidate from the Jalandhar reserve parliamentary constituency.

The blow to the grand old party came two days after Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, the wife of late Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary, joined the BJP in Delhi.

Kaypee, a prominent Dalit leader in the Doaba region, was a minister in the 1992 and 1995 Congress government.

He became an MP from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and unsuccessfully fought from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.

Kaypee has been elected a legislator thrice — 1985, 1992 and 2002 — from Jalandhar South assembly seat.

In 2017, he lost to SAD candidate Pawan Kumar Tinu from the Adampur assembly seat.

Kaypee has a rich political legacy. His father Darshan Singh Kaypee was a five-time MLA from Jalandhar. He was killed by the militants in 1992.