Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is trying to find a solo footing in the state’s political landscape, has reconstituted its core committee with the turncoats taking a major share in it.
The outsiders, including former Congress and Akalis, have outnumbered the traditional BJP leaders in the state core committee list which was announced on Sunday.
In the list of 61 office-bearers released by the state president Sunil Jakhar, 30 have joined the party in the recent past. Of them, 14 have joined from the Congress and nine from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) quite recently.
The biggest example of this is the BJP’s 21-member State Core Committee, in which BJP leaders are in minority. Of the 21, just 10 are taksali BJP men and 11 joined the party quite recently.
The former Congressmen in the core committee are Sunil Jakhar, former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Manpreet Badal, Kewal Dhillon Raj Kumar Verka. Similarly, Charanjit Singh Atwal, Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia, Avinash Chander and PS Gill joined the BJP after leaving the SAD. Apart from that, former DGP Sarabjit Singh has also been included in the core committee.
Besides, among 12 state vice-presidents, four, including Arvind Khanna, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Fatehjang Bajwa and Gurpreet Kangar, were in the Congress till before last year’s elections. Two other vice-presidents Jagdeep Singh Nakai and Jasmine Sandhawalia also remained active in the SAD.
Among the state general secretaries, two of the five joined the party recently. Similarly, among the 12 state secretaries, Harjot Kamal, Daman Thind Bajwa, Sanjeev Khanna, Karanveer Tohra and Vandana Sangwan are recent entrants.
The BJP is trying to find a foothold in the state after it parted ways with the Akali Dal over the contentious farm laws. There have been reports that the two parties are trying to woo each other back with some leaders indicating that there would be an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls. However, on record, leaders from both parties have denied any tie-up. Even the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab has claimed that the two parties were holding “secret” parleys to arrive at an arrangement for the Lok Sabha polls.
