In a setback to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, senior party MLA Raj Kumar Chabbewal on Friday quit the party and is likely to join the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.

The 54-year-old Chabbewal, who is a legislator from Chabbewal assembly constituency in Hoshiarpur district, posted on X, "Resigned today from INC and Legislative Assembly Punjab."

"I tender my resignation from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress with immediate effect," wrote Chabbewal in his letter to the Congress president, which he also posted on X.

However, he did not mention any reason for quitting the party.

In another letter to the Punjab Assembly Speaker, which he also posted on X, Chabbewal, the Deputy Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly, wrote, "I hereby submit my resignation from membership of legislative assembly, Punjab, with immediate effect".

Sources said he is likely to join the AAP, which may field him from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat.

Chabbewal was re-elected from Chabbewal in the 2022 State Assembly elections.

The prominent Dalit leader, who comes from Punjab's Doaba region, had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Hoshiarpur on a Congress ticket but had lost to the BJP's Som Prakash.

Gurpreet Singh GP, a former Congress MLA from Bassi Pathana, had recently joined the AAP.

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