In another setback to AAP ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Aam Aadmi Party's sole Lok Sabha member and Jalandhar MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday along with party MLA Sheetal Angural. Rinku joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and its national general secretary Vinod Tawde.
Joining the saffron party, Sushil Kumar Rinku says, "It is true that the promises I made to the people of Jalandhar were not fulfilled because my party (AAP) did not support me. I am impressed with the working style of PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah."
A few days back, Kumar's and Angural's switching rumours swirled which were then refuted at the time by both. Rinku became the Lok Sabha MP from Jalandhar in Punjab last year after winning a bypoll there with a huge margin. He was the only AAP member in the outgoing Lok Sabha.
He once was also associated with the Congress and is among the 8 candidates of AAP whose candidacy was announced by the AAP for the approaching Lok Sabha elections. The parliamentarian quit the Congress to join AAP last year to fight the by-poll to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat. He had been vocal in criticising the BJP in the Lok Sabha. Rinku was even suspended from the House for his unruly protests.
The BJP is likely to field him in the Lok Sabha polls as the party inducts several influential leaders of different parties in Punjab to emerge as a strong force in the state with 13 constituencies.
Three-term Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu from Punjab joined the BJP on Tuesday and asserted that people have made up their minds to elect Prime Minister Modi to power again.
Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, a hero of the anti-terrorism campaign in the state who was assassinated in a terror attack while still in office.
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