Punjab: Jalandhar MP Sushil Kumar Rinku Joins BJP Weeks After Getting Lok Sabha Ticket From AAP, MLA Angural Follows

The lone Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP in Lok Sabha, Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday (27 March) along with AAP MLA Sheetal Angural.

This comes two weeks after Rinku got an AAP ticket for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Jalandhar, a constituency he won in the 2023 by-polls as the seat got vacated due to the demise of the sitting Congress MP.

BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde, the party's Punjab president Sunil Jakhar and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri welcomed the two leaders into the party.

Sheetal Angural was elected as an MLA from Jalandhar West in the 2022 Assembly elections by defeating Sushil Kumar Rinku, who was sitting MLA and contested on a Congress ticket at that time.

"We were together in Congress. Rinku took a longer route (going to AAP and then coming to BJP). However, he found that there was nothing in the AAP. He couldn't work for Jalandhar's development," Jakhar said.

Attacking AAP, Jakhar said that Punjabis think by heart and hence, fell for an "experiment". "He knows from where to extract money," Jakhar said targeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the liquor policy case.

Rinku said that his only motive for joining the BJP is the development of Punjab and his parliamentary constituency Jalandhar. "I couldn't fulfill my promises because my government didn't support me," he added.

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's "working style", Rinku said that he was impressed. He also thanked Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for Adampur airport.