Eyeing urban seats, rebels joining BJP in Punjab

NEW DELHI: Recently some Congress MLAs left their party to join the BJP as part of a well-thought strategy to tap in the non-sikh voters, who are said to be inclined to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Two Congress MLAs, Balwinder Singh Laddi and Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa along with 13 of their supporters joined the BJP on Tuesday. Before them, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi joined the BJP last week.

Others who ditched their parties to join the BJP are former Lok Sabha member Rajdev Khalsa from the Congress, senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and three-time former MLA Gurtej Singh Ghuriana.

Sources said that former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's loyalists are joining the BJP as they want to contest the 2022 Assembly polls from the BJP strongholds or from the seats they think have high BJP vote share.

Sources said that Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi wanted to contest from the urban seat of Firozpur City where the BJP used to contest during the Akali-BJP alliance and similarly Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa too wants to fight from a seat which has non-sikh votes and tap in on the Prime Minister's popularity. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former Congress leader Amarinder Singh and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa's Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) will together contest the Punjab Assembly polls. The BJP is expected to contest the urban Assembly seats in alliance with former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress (PCL). Sources in the saffron party said that the former chief minister's Punjab Lok Congress will field its candidate from the Assembly constituencies in the rural areas. Both the parties, however, announced to contest the Assembly polls together, but they have yet to announce formula for seat sharing. (IANS)

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