Who is Harmeet Pathanmajra, AAP MLA on the run in Punjab?

Controversies have always chased Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, a first-time MLA coming from a line of political luminaries. On Tuesday, chasing the Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Sanaur in Patiala district were his own government’s police.
Arrested on allegations of rape earlier in the day, Pathanmajra managed to escape the Punjab Police with the help of accomplices, who opened fire to keep the cops away. In the melee, at least one policeman was hit by a vehicle and got injured.
While the rape allegations apparently stem from an old case, what has changed in recent days is Pathanmajra’s open criticism of the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government over the handling of the floods which have devastated the state.
Hailing from a family whose members were among the founders of the Akali Dal, Pathanmajra came to the AAP after making pit-stops in many parties. If his forefathers were said to have contributed Rs 10,000 for the Akali Dal’s formation in 1920 – a princely sum at that time – Pathanmajra’s father Hardev Singh was a Congress sarpanch and a zila parishad member.
The family is said to own 250-300 acres of agricultural land across states, with Pathanmajra listing assets of Rs 2.4 crore in his 2022 election affidavit.
The 50-year-old started his political journey with the Akali Dal, joining its Badal faction as a youth leader in 1992. In 2011, he left, but after dabbling with Akali Dal rebel Manpreet Badal’s People’s Party of Punjab for a year, he returned to the Akali Dal.
In 2015, Pathanmajra was expelled from the Akali Dal for indiscipline after an incident at a district development panchayat office. He reportedly tried to find a place in the Congress next, and when denied a ticket by the party, contested the 2017 Assembly elections as an Independent. He got only 11,840 votes and lost even his security deposit.
By this time, the AAP had started appearing on the Punjab horizon, and in 2018, Pathanmajra joined the new party along with activist Sukhpal Singh Khaira. However, he didn’t stay long with the AAP, after it didn’t win much and the Congress came to power in 2017. Pathanmajra’s next stop was the Punjab Ekta Party, founded by Khaira, before he made his way back to the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
As the Congress was wiped out again in the state and nationally, Pathanmajra looked to the AAP again. In December 2020, he rejoined the AAP and won the 2022 Assembly elections that the party swept, from the Sanaur seat.
It was a big win for Pathanmajra, as he defeated sitting MLA Harinder Pal Singh Chandumajra, the son of senior Akali Dal leader Prem Singh Chandumajra, by a huge 49,112 votes.
In May 2024, Harinder Pal filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court accusing Pathanmajra of concealing his criminal record in his election affidavit.
After it came to power, the AAP made Pathanmajra a member of the Punjab Assembly’s Committee on Estimates and the Committee on Government Assurances.

An admission and a complaint

In August 2022, battling one of his biggest controversies, Pathanmajra admitted to having two wives – claiming that his second marriage happened with the consent of his first. However, his second wife lodged a complaint at the Zirakpur Police Station, accusing the MLA of hiding his first marriage and then not keeping a promise to divorce his first wife.
The complainant, who moved the High Court, also accused Pathanmajra of physical assault, neglect, and threats, and alleged that the MLA and his family had threatened to kill her. A controversial video of the MLA went viral during this time, and Pathanmajra alleged that his rivals, including the Chandumajra family, were behind a conspiracy to defame him.
The latest rape allegations against Pathanmajra surfaced after an FIR was filed against him recently. Pathanmajra posted on social media that the charges were politically motivated and connected to his estranged second wife.
The action on the FIR followed soon after Pathanmajra lashed out at the AAP government and the state bureaucracy over what he called their “complete failure” in handling the recent floods in Punjab. He accused senior officials, particularly Principal Secretary Krishan Kumar, of misleading the government and blocking crucial pre-monsoon works such as desilting of rivers and strengthening of embankments.
“I raised the issue multiple times but no action was taken,” Pathanmajra said, urging Chief Minister Mann to remove officials who, he said, were dictating terms.
According to sources, what may have finally tilted the scales against Pathanmajra is his attack on the Delhi-based AAP leadership, accusing it of “suppressing” Punjab MLAs instead of addressing ground realities. He had claimed that soon after this, his security cover of 12 personnel was withdrawn and the SHOs in his area were transferred.