Past Punjab’s revolving door, ‘new BJP’ is the ‘old Congress’

“The new BJP is the old Congress in Punjab,” said a BJP insider as three-time Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, grandson of former chief minister Beant Singh, switched on Tuesday to the BJP, which now has a host of ex-Congress leaders among its ranks. Bittu has been a close aide of Rahul Gandhi.

The Punjab Congress has seen an exodus of leaders since the exit of party stalwart and ex-CM Captain Amarinder Singh in September 2021.

Amarinder, who belongs to the erstwhile Patiala ruling family, then floated the Punjab Lok Congress and contested the 2022 Assembly polls in alliance with the BJP but failed to open his account. He subsequently joined the BJP with his daughter Jai Inder Kaur, merging his outfit with it.

Currently, Amarinder is a member of the BJP’s National Executive while Jai Inder is the party’s Mahila Morcha president and a member of the state campaign committee.

Earlier this month, Amarinder’s wife and Patiala MP, Preneet Kaur, who was suspended by the Congress last year, also joined the BJP. She is likely to be fielded by the BJP from her seat.

“Many more leaders, not only from the Congress but even from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will join the BJP in coming weeks,” a party leader said.

Apart from the erstwhile royals, the Congress got a setback in May 2022, when its ex-state president Sunil Jakhar shifted to the BJP. He is now the Punjab BJP chief. Jakhar made scathing remarks while quitting the Congress, saying it had no intention to save itself despite facing an existential crisis. Jakhar was said to have been miffed with the party for not making him the CM after Amarinder’s resignation as senior leader Ambika Soni, who had declined the CM’s post herself, had insisted on a Sikh face