Four senior Punjab Congress leaders be part of BJP

By PTI

CHANDIGARH: In a significant setback to the Congress in Punjab, 4 of its leaders and former ministers Raj Kumar Verka, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sunder Sham Arora and Gurpreet Singh Kangar joined the BJP right here on Saturday.

Former Congress MLA from Barnala, Kewal Dhillon, and former SAD MLAs Sarup Chand Singla and Mohinder Kaur Josh additionally joined the BJP.

They joined the BJP within the presence of Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Som Parkash, state unit chief Ashwani Sharma, and senior get together leaders Dushyant Gautam, Tarun Chugh, Sunil Jakhar and Manjinder Singh Sirsa.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah was additionally in Chandigarh on Saturday for a gathering with get together leaders and inaugurating the Khelo India Youth Games in Haryana’s Panchkula.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring stated these leaders betrayed the get together.

Balbir Sidhu, a three-time MLA from Mohali, was the well being minister within the earlier Congress authorities, whereas Gurpreet Kangar, a three-time MLA from Rampura Phul, was the income minister.

Verka, a outstanding Dalit chief from the Majha area, can be a three-time legislator and was the minister for social justice and and empowerment and minorities within the earlier authorities.

Sunder Sham Arora, a former MLA from Hoshiarpur, was the trade and commerce minister within the earlier Congress authorities.

Balbir Sidhu’s brother Amarjit Singh Sidhu, who’s the mayor of Mohali company, additionally joined the BJP.

Balbir Sidhu, Sunder Sham Arora and Gurpreet Kangar had been dropped from the ministries after the Congress changed Amarinder Singh with Charanjit Singh Channi because the chief minister final 12 months.

The induction of 4 senior leaders of the Punjab Congress into the BJP is being seen as an enormous achieve for the saffron get together which is increasing its presence within the state.

Verka is a Dalit face whereas Kangar and Sidhu are Jat leaders and Arora is a Hindu face.

After Sunil Jakhar left the Congress and joined the saffron get together, it was speculated that extra leaders would give up the grand outdated get together.

Reacting to the event, Punjab Congress chief Warring stated all these leaders who abandoned the get together and joined the BJP had “betrayed” the Congress “like an ungrateful son deserts his mother”.

“Scared, they apparently wanted safe, secure political asylum, somewhere and the BJP provided it”, Warring stated.

“They owe their current stature, that qualified them for the new political asylum to Indian National Congress, which groomed them like a mother grooms her children,” he stated.

“And when it was their turn to reciprocate, they betrayed their mother for greener, nay, saffron pastures,” he alleged.

The PCC president stated whereas the lack of any chief or a employee is felt by the get together, on the identical time it results in extra openings and alternatives for the loyal and recent blood whose progress in any other case will get blocked.

Warring stated, “best of luck for joining the BJP grateful that the elite who enjoyed all the privileges in the party have vacated the space for younger leadership from common background.”

He identified that lots of the leaders who abandoned the get together had acquired all of the privileges, with their sons and brothers occupying all prestigious and highly effective positions at the price of different loyal and hardworking leaders and employees.

Alleging that these leaders had been gripped by some worry for causes “not publicly unknown”, he stated, “hope you all now feel safe and secure in your new saffron pastures as you were obsessively stressed and scared for the reasons best known to you and not publicly unknown, either.”