CHANDIGARH: Suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament and former diplomat Harinder Singh Khalsa today joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Khalsa joined the saffron party in Delhi today in the presence of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Speaking to the media, he committed to working for the party and is not eyeing for a BJP ticket.
He is considered close to Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri as both of them were Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers of 1974. It is being speculated that Puri has played a key role in convincing Khalsa to join the saffron party.
Khalsa was elected from Fatehgarh Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 on an AAP ticket and was suspended in 2015 due to alleged anti-party activities.
Khalsa who was the Indian envoy in Norway when Operation Bluestar took place in 1984, had resigned from his post as a mark of protest.
Earlier, he was elected as an MP from Bathinda in 1996 on a Shiromani Akali Dal ticket. Khalsa was also a member of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes and Tribes during the NDA government under then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
He had attended the lecture series organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Delhi in January this year. The saffron party was reportedly looking to include a Sikh face who could speak on behalf of the community in Punjab.