Who Is Devinder Sehrawat, Ex AAP MLA, Now Congress Pick In Delhi Polls

Colonel Devinder Sehrawat, a former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator, will contest the Delhi Assembly polls from the Bijwasan seat on a Congress ticket. Mr Sehrawat joined Congress in December 2024. He has previously been associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena as well.

Mr Sehrawat will take on AAP’s Surender Bharadwaj.

Five facts about Colonel Devinder Sehrawat:

1. Born in Delhi’s Mahipalpur area, Devinder Sehrawat attended The Air Force School in the national capital. He pursued a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and a Master of Science (M.Sc) from the Madras University. He also has a postgraduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.
2. After serving in the Indian Army for around two decades, Mr Sehrawat shifted focus to advocating for farmers’ rights in Delhi. He began his political journey with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) following the India Against Corruption movement. In 2013, AAP fielded Devinder Sehrawat from the Bijwasan seat, but he lost to then-BJP candidate Sat Prakash Rana. Later, Mr Sehrawat unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the South Delhi parliamentary constituency against BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri.
3. In 2015, Mr Sehrawat tried his luck again from the Bijwasan Assembly seat and defeated BJP’s Sat Prakash Rana by over 19,000 votes. The AAP swept the Delhi elections at the time with 67 of the 70 seats in the national capital.
4. In September 2016, he was suspended from the primary membership of AAP by the disciplinary committee. The party action came after Devinder Sehrawat and another party MLA refused to sign a letter seeking the removal of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan for alleged anti-party activities. Back then, Mr Sehrawat also wrote to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal alleging that the party leaders in Punjab were exploiting women in return for tickets.
5. Ahead of the 2019 Assembly elections, Mr Sehrawat joined the BJP. He was disqualified by then Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on the grounds of defection. He moved the Supreme Court against the order, but the top court declined to stay the impending disqualification proceedings. In May 2023, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena announced the appointment of Mr Sehrawat as its state president after he joined the party. In December 2024, Mr Sehrawat joined the Congress and will contest from the Bijwasan seat.