From shoe protest to FB controversy: All about former AAP MLA Jarnail Singh

Jarnail Singh, the former Aam Aadmi Party legislator who died of COVID on May 14 at age 48, was a trained journalist who had worked with several publications. He made headlines when he threw a shoe at the then Home Minister P Chidambaram during a press conference in 2009. He was reportedly upset over the Congress giving poll tickets to leaders who had been accused of 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

From journalism, Singh made a shift to politics and contested assembly polls on AAP ticket from Delhi’s Rajouri Garden in 2014. He resigned three years later, in 2017, to contest the Punjab assembly elections against then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. He lost by a huge margin.

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In 2020, Singh again courted controversy when a picture with objectionable comments against Hindu gods was posted from his Facebook account. He deleted the post after backlash and said that the image was mistakenly published by his son during an online class.

The AAP responded by suspending Singh, once their most prominent Sikh face, from the party.