In a major setback to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab in the run-up to the parliamentary election, its lone Lok Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Rinku and a party legislator Sheetal Angural on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mr. Rinku was announced as an AAP candidate from the Jalandhar constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha election as well. In 2023, Mr. Rinku joined the AAP a few days ahead of the Jalandhar parliamentary byelection in Punjab and won the election for his new party by defeating the nearest rival of the Congress party. Mr. Angural was elected to the State Assembly from Jalandhar West in the 2022 election.
Both AAP leaders joined the BJP in New Delhi, in the presence of party national General Secretary Vinod Tawde and BJP Punjab president Sunil Jakhar. On Tuesday, Congress’s senior leader and Lok Sabha MP from Ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu joined the BJP. He is the grandson of late Chief Minister Beant Singh.
AAP Punjab’s unit, in a statement, termed Mr. Rinku and Mr. Angural as traitors after they joined the BJP. The party said both the leaders were elected by the people because they were fielded on the AAP tickets but now, they are betraying the people of Jalandhar and their trust.
The AAP is in power in Punjab and is seeking votes on its performance and policies in the coming Lok Sabha election, the result would be a critical test to ascertain the two-year-old AAP government’s popularity in Punjab.
The party will be fighting against the Congress, its ally in the INDIA bloc. The party is also expected to face strong challenges from the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and the BJP.
The AAP made its mark in Punjab with a thumping majority in the 2022 Assembly polls, but within months it faced a major setback as the party lost the parliamentary byelection to the Sangrur constituency, which was considered the party’s bastion. However, the AAP’s win in the Jalandhar parliamentary byelection in 2023 came as a consolation for the party.
