Former Chief Minister of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party headquarters in Delhi in the presence of Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Kiren Rijiju.
During the event, Singh also merged his party, the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) with the BJP. He had met with party national president J P Nadda in Delhi earlier in the day.
Addressing reporters at the BJP headquarters, Singh said that he was grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Nadda.
Union minister for law and justice, Rijiju hailed his joining the BJP and said that right-thinking people of the country should be united.
He said, “A sensitive state like Punjab should be handled carefully. During his tenure as CM, he never kept politics before national security.”
It may be noted that Singh had announced that he would be joining the BJP after meeting with Amit Shah on September 12 in Delhi.
He had served Congress for a long time, but resigned as the Punjab CM in September last year ahead of the state assembly polls.
Later on, Singh also resigned from the Congress to form his own party Punjab Lok Congress which had fought the assembly polls in collaboration with the BJP and SAD (Sanyukt).
With this, the BJP will now have a credible Sikh face in Punjab who has been active in the politics of the state for years.
