Five days after quitting Cong, Jakhar makes saffron switch
NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH:: Days after he resigned from the Congress bidding the party “good luck and goodbye”, veteran leader Sunil Jakhar on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying he felt the need to join party with “nationalistic” outlook.
BJP national president JP Nadda welcomed the 68-year-old former Punjab Congress chief in the party fold at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
“I broke the connection (with the Congress) not for a personal issue, but for the reason of nationalism… I think it is the right time to have a rethink when we move away from our ideology,” Jakhar, who resigned from the Congress ending his family’s 50-year connection with the party on Saturday, said after joining the BJP. Speaking on condition of anonymity, people close to Jakhar said he may be nominated to the Rajya Sabha and be given some responsibility in Punjab.
Jakhar said he stayed with the Congress in good times and bad, but he was made to pay a price when he said Punjab cannot be divided on the basis of religion and caste. “Punjab has a template for the country; there is no second-class citizen, all are treated equally…,” he said.
Jakhar headed the Punjab unit of Congress for little over four years before being replaced with Navjot Singh Sidhu in July 2021. He was at the loggerheads with the Congress ever since the party leadership issued him a show-cause notice before removing him from all posts on April 30 for “anti-party” activities in the run-up to this year’s assembly elections.
Ahead of the Punjab polls held in March, Jakhar claimed the Congress refused to name him as the chief ministerial candidate because he was a Hindu, and the party felt that a Sikh candidate would have better chances of winning.
Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jakhar said he met the PM when he came for the Kartarpur corridor inauguration and “understood his sentiments”. “We asked for a special status (for Punjab), and though it has not been given yet, I feel in principle this has been agreed to. When the PM celebrated the 400th Prakash Divas of Guru Teg Bhahadur at Red Fort, I felt he has grasped the pulse of the state,” he said.
Welcoming Jakhar into the party, Nadda said it was important that people with nationalist thoughts join the BJP. Jakhar is a three-term Congress MLA and a former Lok Sabha member from Gurdaspur. He is the son of former Lok Sabha speaker late Balram Jakhar. His nephew Sandeep Jakhar is the Congress legislator from Abohar.