BJP’s Mohinder Bhagat joins AAP

CHANDIGARH/JALANDHAR: Ahead of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, BJP leader Mohinder Paul Bhagat joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday.

Bhagat, who belongs to Jalandhar, is the son of Chuni Lal Bhagat, who was a minister in the erstwhile SAD-BJP government in Punjab.

Bhagat was welcomed into the AAP by chief minister Bhagwant Mann. Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural and AAP’s Punjab general secretary Harchand Singh Barsat were also present.

Bhagat was the BJP candidate from Jalandhar West assembly constituency twice, including the state polls last year. He was state vice-president of the BJP from 1998 to 2001 and then from 2017 to 2020.

He remained the chairman of the Punjab Medium Industries Development Board from 2007 to 2011, according to a statement issued by the AAP.

Before Bhagat, Congress leader Sushil Kumar Rinku, who was the Congress candidate from Jalandhar West against Angural during the 2022 assembly elections, had joined the party. Rinku has been named by the AAP as its candidate for the Lok Sabha bypoll.

“AAP is the only party as far as Jalandhar West is concerned because no competitor is left there from the opposition. Local councillors and leaders are also leaving their parties and are extending their support to the AAP,” the party claimed.

Soon after Bhagat’s induction into the AAP, senior BJP leaders Manoranjan Kalia and KD Bhandari reached Chuni Lal Bhagat’s house and met him.

“I am pained and anguished over my son’s decision to join the AAP,” the veteran BJP leader said, adding that he will stay in the BJP as the party’s true soldier.