Former Indian Ambassador to the United States, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, joined the BJP on March 19, and is likely to contest on the party ticket from Amritsar, where he has been reaching out to people since he retired from the foreign service a few months ago.
Mr. Sandhi joined the BJP in the presence of BJP’s national general secretaries Vinod Tawde and Tarun Chugh (in charge of party affairs in Punjab).
After greeting the audience at the joining presser in Punjabi, Mr. Sandhu said that he had been working closely with the “leadership of Prime Minister Modi” especially with regard to the United States and had seen the relationship between the two countries transform into a partnership, a kind of “win-win” situation. “This is true at least with regards to five issues where U.S. investments in India are increasing, these are – health care, IT and semi conductors, solar energy and education,” he said.
He added that his experience with Mr. Modi and the issues of development addressed by him had encouraged him to join the party. He referred to his old ties to the city of Amritsar in Punjab, which he called “Guru ki Nagari” (Guru’s city), and that of his family.
Mr. Sandhu’s grandfather Sardar Teja Singh Samundri was a well-known freedom fighter, and one of the founders of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee and his father, Bishan Singh Samundri was the founder vice-chancellor of the Guru Nanak Dev University. The BJP is hoping that Mr. Sandhu’s lineage, experience as a diplomat, and local connections with Amritsar may help the party win the seat, where the BJP has had a run of bad luck. Mr. Sandhu was also India’s envoy to the U.S..when there has been increasing conflict between the Indian government and the U.S. and Canada over Khalistani groups.
Between 2004-2014, former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu was elected MP from Amritsar on a BJP ticket, after which the party lost the seat in 2014, when late Finance Minister Arun Jaitley contested, followed by a loss in 2019 when current Urban Development Minister and former diplomat again, Hardeep Puri fought the polls.
