AMN / WEB DESK
Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and former MP Sunil Jakhar have been appointed as members of the Bharatiya Janta Party National Executive on Friday.
Party also appointed former Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill as the national spokesperson of the party. Singh and several other senior leaders quit Congress over differences with then Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
With an eye on Punjab for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP Amarinder Singh and ex chief of state Congress Sunil Jakhar as the party’s national executive members.
Former Congress minister in Punjab Rana Gurmit Sodhi has also been appointed special invitee to the committee, the top deliberative body of the BJP which sets the larger political agenda Other appointments in BJP
Madan Kaushik, Vishnu Deo Sai, its former presidents of Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh respectively, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Manoranjan Kalia and Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia, all three from Punjab, have been made special invitees to the national executive, BJP statement read.
Amarinder Singh joined the BJP in September and merged his Punjab Lok Congress with it, saying it was time for him to go to the party that is looking after the country’s interests and security. Singh (80) joined the BJP at its headquarters in the presence of Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Kiren Rijiju along with several Punjab leaders. His son Raninder Singh and daughter Jai Inder Kaur also joined the saffron party.
In his remarks, the two-time former Punjab chief minister with a long association with the Congress before he quit it last year highlighted his security concerns for Punjab amid “increasing animosity” with Pakistan, something he has been seeing with “growing dismay”.
Singh had floated the Punjab Lok Congress last year after quitting the Congress following his unceremonious exit as chief minister, but his party failed to win any seat in the state assembly polls held in February.
Singh himself lost from his home turf of Patiala Urban as the Aam Aadmi Party scored a landslide victory. Along with Singh, former deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly Ajaib Singh Bhatti, former MP Amrik Singh Aliwal, former legislators Harchand Kaur, Harinder Singh Thekedar, Prem Mittal and labour leader Kewal Singh also joined the BJP with scores of his supporters. The former adviser to Amarinder Singh, BIS Chahal, also joined the saffron party.
Amarinder Singh, once Congress stalwart had defeated sitting Union Minister Arun Jaitley from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat by a huge margin at the height of Narendra Modi wave that had led the BJP to a historic win in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.