The Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiromani Akali Dal have once again failed to reach a consensus for an alliance for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. The BJP had won two out of the 13 seats during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. This time, the BJP is looking to increase its seat tally given the party wants to achieve a historic mark of 370 for itself and 400 for the National Democratic Alliance. The two BJP MPs from Punjab are Sunny Deol and Som Prakash while Chandigarh is represented by Kirron Kher.
The BJP has got a significant boost in the last few years in Punjab with several key leaders joining the party. Most of the entrants are from Congress, right from Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar who was earlier heading Congress in the state. Other Congress leaders who have joined the BJP in the state include former MLAs Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Kewal Singh Dhillon, and Arvind Khanna. All of these names are being considered for the Lok Sabha elections.
Now, in a fresh boost for the party, former Congress leader and now Aam Aadmi Party’s lone Lok Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the BJP. He is an MP from the Jalandhar seat. Along with him, Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural also joined the saffron brigade. Both the leaders said that the working style of PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Welcoming the two legislators to the BJP, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the BJP is the largest political party in the world and people from different walks of life are joining it.
On Tuesday, the Congress MP from Ludhiana, Ravneet Bittu, joined the BJP. Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated in 1995 in Chandigarh in a suicide bombing. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Bittu defeated Simarjeet Singh Bains from the Lok Insaaf Party by 76,372 votes. In 2014, he defeated the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Harvinder Singh Phoolka with a margin of 19,709 votes.
With these leaders, the BJP is hoping to increase its seat tally in the state which has been unfavourable for the party. Even if the BJP wins 4-5 seats, it will be a boost for the party in the polls.