Who is Ajit Pal Singh Kohli, the man who trounced Maharaja of Patiala?

While Kohli bagged 48,104 votes, Amarinder Singh could garner only 28,231 votes.

Ajit Pal Singh Kohli beat Captain Amarinder Singh

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday stormed to power in Punjab decimating several heavyweight leaders. One of the most high-profile contests was in Patiala (Urban) where former chief minister and Congress leader Amarinder Singh was in the fray, this time in alliance with the BJP. 

However, the Maharaja of Patiala was beaten by AAP’s Ajit Pal Singh Kohli by nearly 20,000 votes. While Kohli bagged 48,104 votes, Amarinder could garner only 28,231 votes. SAD’s Harpal Juneja stood a distant third with 11,835 votes, and Congress’s Vishnu Sharma could secure a mere 9,871 votes. 

In 2017, Amarinder – fighting on a Congress ticket – had defeated AAP’s Balbir Singh by 52,407 votes, which was over 49 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency. In fact, Amarinder has won the constituency four times. 

Kohli’s win this time was so thumping that even Captain’s and Congress’s votes together were far lesser than what he got. A businessman by profession, the 43-year-old has assets worth Rs 32.4 crore, as per his election commission affidavit. He did his post-graduation in Politics from Patiala’s Punjabi University in 2006 and was earlier associated with the Akali Dal before shifting loyalties to Arvind Kejriwal. 

Kohli was also elected the mayor of Patiala municipal corporation in 2011. His father Surjeet Singh Kohli has served as a Cabinet minister as well.

Ajit Pal Singh Kohli has an MA in Politics from Punjab University. He has assets worth more than Rs 32 crore and liabilities of about Rs 55 lakh. He has a criminal case pending against him, as per his election affidavit.