Chandigarh, July 5 -- Once counted among the most powerful ministers in Punjab's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government, Ajnala MLA Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal was dropped from the state Cabinet on Thursday. While no official reason has been cited for his removal, Dhaliwal's exit comes just weeks after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused him of shielding drug smugglers - a charge that appears to have played a decisive role in the Chief Minister's decision to show him the door during the Cabinet reshuffle that inducted Ludhiana West MLA and industrialist Sanjeev Arora.
His fall from favour, however, had begun long before the reshuffle, marked by controversy, administrative sidelining, and a gradual erosion of trust within AAP's top ranks. Dhaliwa...