Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, AAP's lone MP joins BJP
The lone Lok Sabha MP of the Aam Aadmi Party, Sushil Kumar Rinku, and Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Wednesday. Rinku was elected to the Lok Sabha from the constituency by a margin of 58,691 votes in a bypoll in 2023. Notably, the AAP had already announced him as its candidate from Jalandhar constituency for the upcoming elections.
Rinku dissatisfied with AAP leadership
According to reports, Rinku was dissatisfied with the AAP leadership for failing to deliver on promises, such as establishing a sports hub and university, implementing the smart city project, among others in Jalandhar. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann convened a closed-door meeting with him on March 19 to address his grievances, but the discussions yielded no results. "The promises I made...weren't fulfilled because my party (AAP) did not support me," Rinku said after his induction into the BJP.
Congress's Ravneet Bittu joins BJP
Rinku's exit from the AAP comes a day after the BJP managed to recruit Congress MP Ravneet Bittu. Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated in a suicide bombing in Chandigarh in 1995. His entry into the BJP will strengthen the party, senior leaders have said. On Tuesday, the BJP announced its decision to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Punjab independently, without any alliance.
Rinku, Angural's history with AAP
To recall, Rinku was earlier in the Congress and had switched to the AAP before the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-poll. Meanwhile, Angural, who had been in the national capital since last week, was the first to level accusations of poaching against the BJP in 2022. Both leaders share a common base in the Jalandhar West constituency and have often been at odds throughout their political careers, until Rinku joined the AAP last year.
Punjab to vote on June 1
Rinku and Anugural's shift to the BJP will deal a blow to the AAP, which is contesting independently on all 13 seats in Punjab. The stage is set for a four-cornered contest in the state between the AAP, the Congress, the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal. Punjab will go to polls in a single phase on June 1. The counting of Lok Sabha polling votes will take place on June 4.
