Ex-Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar joins BJP

Mangalore Today News Network

Chandigarh, May 19, 2022: Just a few days after resigning from the Congress, the former Punjab chief of the party, Sunil Jakhar, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of the party’s national president JP Nadda on Thursday.

 

The senior leader resigned from the Congress last Saturday.

THE TIMELINE OF JAKHAR’S POLITICAL CAREER

- Three-time MLA Sunil Jakhar had entered the poll fray in Punjab in 2001 assembly elections.

- He was the president of Punjab Congress Committee (PCC) from 2017 to 2021.

- He was elected MLA consecutively three times from the Abohar assembly constituency from 2002 to 2017.

- Jakhar also remained the leader of the Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha from 2012 to 2017.

- Jakhar had also won a Lok Sabha bypoll from the Gurdaspur constituency in 2017 after Vinod Khanna’s demise.

- He had also opposed Jagdish Tytler’s appointment as a permanent invitee to the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee in October 2021.

- He did not contest assembly elections in 2022 as he announced to quit electoral politics in February 2022.

- Jakhar was miffed by the Congress High command after his name was excluded from the list of CM probables earlier this year.

- Jakhar had also slammed the Congress government after Prime Minister Modi was stopped by protesters in Firozepur on January 5 this year.

- He was accused of indulging in anti-party activities after he criticised senior Congress leader Ambika Soni and former CM Charanjit Singh Channi.

- Jakhar was upset about the issuance of a show-cause notice to him and had termed it an ’insult’.

- The Congress disciplinary committee had recommended Jakhar’s suspension on April 26.

- The senior Congress leader bid adieu to the Congress in a Facebook live video on May 14.

- Sunil Jakhar is the younger son of the late Balram Jakhar, who was the longest-serving Lok Sabha speaker from 1980 to 1989.

Courtesy: India Today