Aiming to leave larger imprints in the political landscape of Punjab, the BJP inducted former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and former state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar into the party’s national executive on Friday.
The two Congress leaders from Punjab who had switched over to the BJP are among the three new members of the saffron party’s national executive. Swatantardev Singh from Uttar Pradesh is the third new member.
Another Punjab Congress leader who had joined the BJP, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, has been included as a special invitee to the body. Veteran BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia and Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia also have been appointed from the state as special invitees. Two more special invitees were added–Vishnu Deo Sai from Chhattisgarh and Madan Kaushik from Uttarakhand, both former presidents of the party in their states.
The BJP also appointed another leader from Punjab, Jaiveer Shergill, a lawyer who had quit the Congress in August, as a national spokesperson of the party.
After parting ways with the Congress, Amarinder floated the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) and contested the February 20 Punjab elections in alliance with the BJP, but none of the PLC candidates could do any well in the polls.
Almost exactly a year after he was unceremoniously replaced by the Congress with Charanjit Singh Channi as Chief Minister, Amarinder merged his PLC with the BJP in September. Jakhar joined the BJP in May and Sodhi did so last December.
BJP national executive leader Harjit Singh Grewal said the inclusion of the tall political leaders from Punjab would “attract more leaders from the state into the party fold”. “It will dispel the impression that the BJP is untouchable in Punjab,” he added.
But the new additions have struck discordant notes as well. A senior Congress turncoat, while referring to another former Congress leader who has got a position in the BJP’s updated organisational structure, said, “There was a hope for change, but a nazar wattoo (an object to keep evil eyes away) has also been appointed in the new structure.”
Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia, a former Akali leader who had joined the BJP, is the daughter of former Union minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia.
