Kanwar Sandhu had never given much thought to joining politics. His interest in politics was limited to casting his vote and expressing his opinion as a senior journalist. But when the Aam Aadmi Party came along—seemingly offering a breath of fresh air—espousing causes that were distinct to Punjab and very different from what the party was fighting for in the national capital, he jumped on the the AAP bandwagon. The future then seemed uncertain, but there was hope and enthusiasm. Sandhu contributed to the ideation process and election campaign, and won from Kharar assembly seat in 2017.

A few days ago, Sandhu was being honoured for service to society by none less than Army Chief General Bipin Rawat at his alma mater, the Punjab Public School, Nabha, when he learnt that he had been suspended from the AAP. The core committee of the party's state unit alleged that he was indulging in anti-party activities. Also suspended was another bright politician, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who left the Congress to join the AAP, notwithstanding the writing on the wall then—Captain Amarender Singh was leading the Congress to a definite victory in the assembly polls.

Sandhu has maintained that the decision of the AAP core committee was in violation of the party constitution as they had not been given an opportunity to clarify their position. He was confident that the party's disciplinary committee will issue a show cause notice to the core committee for this unconstitutional act.

With these two leaders suspended, the AAP in Punjab has not only lost much of its connect to the ground realities, but also strengthened the disgruntled, the rebels and those annoyed with the party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's manner of sending people from the national capital to take decisions on Punjab's ground affairs. In fact, the crisis in the party began with Khaira being removed as leader of the opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha about four months ago, for seeking autonomy for the state unit of the party.

The dissidents met along with their supporters last week, and appointed former Punjab Agricultural University vice-chancellor K.S. Aualkh as Lokayukta, who they expected would probe cases of financial irregularities being alleged against party leaders, including those in the national capital.

The AAP, which contested over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, has scaled down the target to about 100 during the next elections which is a few months away. Punjab, with 13 parliamentary constituencies, is where the party stood a better chance of winning a few. But the division in the ranks, as well as leadership, has put a big question mark over whatever promise the state held for the young party.