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After strong backlash from its traditional cadre, and rank and file, over the appointment of Kewal Singh Dhillon, an ‘outsider’, as the Punjab president, the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be in damage control action.

The party has nominated its national general secretary from Punjab, Tarun Chugh, to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. Otherwise, it was widely believed that the party was keen to send Sunil Jakhar, the outgoing state president to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh. Jakhar missed the bus a second time. Both Dhillon and Jakhar had joined the BJP after defecting from the Congress.

While Chugh’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha did come as a surprise, more surprising was dropping the union minister of state in Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, whose term as an RS MP from Rajasthan will end on June 18. Bittu, after the appointment of Dhillon as the state president, was confident of being re-nominated from the same state and continued as the union minister. As of now, he stands to lose both the ministry as well as the membership of the parliament. It will be for the first time since 2009 that Bittu will not be an MP.

Bittu, is expected to be fielded in the ensuing Vidhan Sabha elections which are due in January-February 2027, possibly before that, as these might be advanced by a month or so due to the second phase of census that begins in January.

Dhillon’s appointment appears to have come at heavy price for the former Congressmen in the BJP. Jakhar was not only expected to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha, there was a buzz that he might well be made a minister in the Central government. Now that spot may be filled by Chugh only, since there will be a ‘vacancy’ from Punjab after Bittu demits office.

There is a possibility that Bittu can be allowed to continue as a minister even after his term ends on June 18. He can hold his ministerial position for six months without being a member of the house. But that looks to be an unlikely proposition.

By dropping Bittu and also not nominating Jakhar to the Rajya Sabha this time, the BJP has conveyed a clear message to its traditional rank and file that it remains as important to the party, as anyone else, particularly those who have joined the party recently or during the last few years from other parties.

 

While former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Amarinder Singh has strongly objected to Dhillon’s appointment not because he was an ‘outsider’, only because he believes Dhillon is not capable enough of leading the party, there are others, from the traditional ranks within the BJP who share Amarinder’s views for a different reason of him being an outsider.

There is another aspect to the BJP’s scheme of things. If it has to strengthen the party in Punjab, it will have to welcome the leaders from other parties also and accommodate them with respectable positions. In other states where the BJP has seen a massive influx of leaders from different parties, it was primarily because the party formed the government in those places. There was no such temptation in Punjab.

 

All those leaders who joined the BJP from the Congress or some other parties knew it pretty well that the party was nowhere within the striking distance of forming the government in Punjab. They still joined the party with the hope that their services will be utilised and their joining will be mutually beneficial for the both.

 

Ravneet Bittu, however, was the only exception. For him, joining the BJP ahead of the 2024 General Elections was a win-win situation. He was a sitting Congress MP from Ludhiana. He joined the BJP with enough confidence that he will manage to win from here. He was right. He narrowly lost by a slim margin of about twenty thousand votes to Raja Warring, the Punjab Congress president and his one-time close friend.

 

Also read: Dhillon as Punjab BJP chief causes ripples in Congress

He had apparently been promised a ministerial berth. The BJP fulfilled its commitment to him. Even after losing from Ludhiana, he was appointed minister of state in Railways and later nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. Even now, he is likely to be fielded from one of the safest BJP seats from Ludhiana city in the 2027 assembly elections.

By nominating Chugh, a dyed-in-the-wool BJP man, to the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has conveyed a clear signal to its traditional cadres that it values them. At the same time, it will need to boost the morale and confidence of those who have reposed their faith and trust in the party and joined it at a time when it was, and still continues to be, a marginal force only.

 

The BJP has a galaxy of veterans and influential leaders in its ranks, mostly from the Congress, who can prove to be a great asset. These include Amarinder Singh, Sunil Jakhar, Manpreet Singh Badal, Preneet Kaur, Ashwani Sekhri, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Jagmeet Singh Brar, Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa and Charanjit Singh Atwal, just to name a few.

The BJP will have to accommodate these political stalwarts and heavyweights for its own interests. As of now, the party does not seem to have any clarity as to what to do about all these leaders, possibly because the party never had such leadership strength in Punjab till now.

The party will also need to appoint a ‘full time politician’, to look after Punjab. The current in-charge Manthri Srinivasalu does not come from an ‘active political’ background. The BJP will need someone, who has toiled hard on the ground and electoral fields to understand the ground situation better. More so, someone who will understand the language and the idiom of the place better.