BATHINDA: In another setback for the Aam Aadmi Party , its MLA from Jaitu assembly constituency, Master Baldev Singh, on Wednesday resigned from primary membership of the party.The move comes just ahead of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Punjab for launching the party’s campaign for the upcoming parliamentary elections.Baldev Singh (60) said was going to join Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira-led Punjabi Ekta Party “very soon”. He had hinted at quitting the party on January 7, when he had said he would consult his supporters before reaching a decision.In his resignation letter, the MLA said he was pained to see the party “completely giving up on its ideology and principles”. “After few years into the party, I feel that AAP too has started behaving like other traditional parties and decisions are not taken with unanimity, but with a dictatorial attitude. Pained by all this, I have decided to resign from the party,” he wrote.Baldev said he would continue to be an MLA and had only left the party.He said in the letter that he had seen AAP as a party with a difference and which was determined to cleanse politics of corruption. “I was deeply motivated and moved by the anti-corruption movement launched by Anna Hazare and became a part of AAP. To improve the socio-political situation of our country and Punjab, I went to the extent of quitting my government job as a head teacher, although I had more than 4 years of service left,” he wrote. “This step of mine created panic in my family, but I took the risk merely due to the lofty promises made by you and AAP,” he wrote in the letter addressed to Kejriwal.Khaira had resigned from the primary membership of AAP on January 6. Baldev polled 45,344 votes in the 2017 asssembly elections in Jaity and defeated noted Punjabi singer Mohammad Sadique of the Congress by 9,993 votes.AAP had won 20 seats in those polls. With Khaira and Baldev leaving, AAP’s strength in the assembly has fallen to 18. Some other MLAs are in constant touch with Khaira and the possibility of some more resigning cannot be ruled out. The Shiromani Akali Dal has 14 MLAs.Belonging to village Takhanbadh in Moga, Baldev Singh was head teacher at government primary school of village Machaki Mal Singh near Faridkot and had taken pre mature retirement from service in January 2014 and had applied for AAP ticket from Faridkot parliamentary constituency. The ticket was allotted to Sadhu Singh, but Baldev Singh continued working for the party and got the party ticket for Jaitu in 2017.Baldev described AAP leadership’s attitude as “arrogant and overconfident”, saying that this to the party’s crushing deafeat in the assembly polls. “You never bothered to look into the reasons of this humiliating defeat and once again handed over the reins of Punjab to outsiders,” he wrote in the letter.

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