Chandigarh : Former Miss India and actor Gul Panag on Thursday joined Aam Aadmi Party and will be its candidate for Lok Sabha polls from Chandigarh, a place where she was born and describes as her “family’s home”. Panag said that the country is at the threshold of transformational change which is being led by AAP and Arvind Kejriwal. “There is a time in every country’s history when staying on the side-lines is no longer an option. We are on the cusp of transformational change in the country that is being heralded by AAP and Arvind Kejriwal,” the 35-year-old actor said. Panag was declared the AAP candidate by party’s senior leader Manish Sisodia at a chaotic press conference here.
After comedian Bhagwant Mann, who is party nominee from Sangrur Lok Sabha seat, Panag is the second celebrity fielded by the AAP in the region. Earlier, comedian Jaspal Bhatti’s widow Savita Bhatti was declared as the AAP candidate from Chandigarh seat, but she opted out of the race after reportedly failing to sync with local party activists.
Panag said that Chandigarh is “plagued” with the same issues — dynastic politics, corruption, crony capitalism — which the entire country is facing these days. Panag’s father Lt Gen (retd) H S Panag had joined the AAP last month. She also described herself as a city girl to downplay the claims that she is a paratrooper selected by the AAP as she has no longer association with the city and lives in Mumbai.
Sisodia welcomed Panag to the AAP fold in the media interaction where heated arguments took place between AAP activists, journalists and some outsiders who sought clarifications from the AAP leadership over party’s ideology. Party activists raised slogans at the venue and Sisodia left after introducing Panag to the media.
