5 Congress and 2 Akali leaders have joined the Punjab BJP. “We’re growing,” Minister says

Four Congress politicians and former ministers, Raj Kumar Verka, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sunder Sham Arora, and Gurpreet Singh Kangar, joined the BJP today, dealing a blow to the Congress in Punjab. Kewal Dhillon, a former Congress MLA from Barnala, and Sarup Chand Singla and Mohinder Kaur Josh, both former Shiromani Akali Dal MLAs, have also joined the BJP.

Senior party leaders Dushyant Gautam, Tarun Chugh, Sunil Jakhar, and Manjinder Singh Sirsa, as well as Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Som Parkash, state unit chief Ashwani Sharma, and senior party leaders Dushyant Gautam, Tarun Chugh, Sunil Jakhar, and Manjinder Singh Sirsa, greeted them.

In the previous Congress government, Balbir Sidhu, a three-time MLA from Mohali, served as Health Minister, while Gurpreet Kangar, a three-time MLA from Rampura Phul, served as Revenue Minister.

Mr Verka, a famous Dalit leader from the Majha district, is a three-time legislator who served in the previous government as the Minister for Social Justice, Empowerment, and Minorities.

Today, Home Minister Amit Shah visited Chandigarh and met with state party leaders. He then travelled to Panchkula, Haryana, to open the Khelo India Youth Games.

Former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who defected from the Congress and founded his own party, has blamed the Gandhis for the party’s rout in the recent assembly elections. Before he was deposed as Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh declared the Congress was “comfortably placed” in Punjab.

Following his ejection from the Congress last year, Amarinder Singh formed his own political party, the Punjab Lok Congress.

He’s chastised the Congress Working Committee for attempting to pin the defeat in Punjab on him rather of “gracefully accepting” their “own faults.”