JALANDHAR
In a double setback for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab ahead of Lok Sabha elections 2024, its Jalandhar MP Sushil Kumar Rinku and Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural joined the BJP in Delhi on Wednesday.
Amid the buzz around Rinku, who was already announced as the AAP candidate from Jalandhar, joining the BJP, AAP leaders tried to speak to him to persuade him to stay. However, the talks did not materialize. Rinku was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of 58,691 votes in a by-poll in 2023.
On Tuesday, the BJP had poached Congress MP from Ludhiana, Ravneet Bittu, a few hours after announcing that it would contest the Lok Sabha elections alone without any alliance partner in Punjab. Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated in 1995 in Chandigarh in a suicide bombing.
Lok Sabha elections 2024 in Punjab will be held in a single phase on June 1 to elect 13 MPs. This will be the seventh and last phase of polls across the country. The results will be declared in the countrywide counting on June 4.