CHANDIGARH : In a double blow to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, its MP from Jalandhar Sushil Kumar Rinku and Jalandhar (West) MLA Sheetal Angural joined the BJP on Wednesday. Rinku, third MP from the state to join the BJP, is likely to be fielded from Jalandhar.
Earlier Congress MPs Preneet Kaur and Raveneet Singh Bittu had joined the saffron party. Rinku and Angural joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar and party’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde.
Rinku, the only AAP MP in the outgoing Lok Sabha, was elected from Jalandhar by a margin of 58,691 votes in a bypoll in 2023. Sources said he was upset as most of his projects that he had promised to people ahead of his 2023 bypoll had not taken off in the past 10 months.
“I am impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah,” Rinku said, praising the Centre for its development initiatives. He accused the AAP-led Punjab government of not helping him in development works. “I have no greed for power. I am doing a new experiment for the betterment of Jalandhar. It is true that the promises I made to the people of Jalandhar were not fulfilled because my party (AAP) did not support me,’’ he said.
“We will take Jalandhar forward and bring all the projects of the Central government to Jalandhar.” Jakhar slammed the AAP alleging that the excise scam in Punjab is many times bigger than the one in Delhi. Puri and Tawde said the joining of the AAP leaders will boost the BJP following its decision to go it alone in Punjab.
AAP alleged that the BJP is harassing the opposition and trying to poach its leaders by calling them from foreign numbers.