3 Former Congress Leaders Get Key Posts in BJP, Jaiveer Shergill Named Spokesperson

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday appointed former Congress leaders including ex-Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and Sunil Jakhar as well as former UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh as members of its national executive. It also appointed former Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill its national spokesperson, the party said in a statement.

Former Uttarakhand BJP chief Madan Kaushik, former Congress leader Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, ex Punjab minister Manoranjan Kalia and Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia have been made special invitees to the national executive.

Shortly after the announcement, Shergill thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for appointing him as the party’s national spokesperson.

He later said the party leadership accepted him despite not coming from a political background. He further said he will move from Congress’s “negative politics of criticism” and “chamchagiri” to “kartavya”. “From today onwards I will move from Congress’s negative politics of criticism to politics of positive development, politics of post to politics of serving the nation, from darkness to light, from ‘chamchagiri’ to ‘kartavya’,” he told ANI.

Accusing the Congress of extreme left ideology he said BJP is the future of Punjab. “Congress was the history of Punjab, AAP is present but BJP is the future of Punjab. So this decision was taken after thinking about the people of Punjab. Congress has taken extreme left ideology. The country is with BJP and moving towards progress,” he added.

Former Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill was appointed as the national spokesperson of BJP months after he quit the party posts or the party’s primary membership following a scathing letter accusing “self-serving interests of individuals indulging in sycophancy and consistently ignoring ground reality.”

“Sycophancy and coterie is eating into the Indian National Congress as termites,” he was quoted as saying following his departure from the party. The senior party leader was the third to resign in August after two veterans, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, quit party posts.

Amarinder Singh also expressed gratitute to PM Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda in a tweet and thanked the senior BJP leaders “for reposing faith in me and appointing me as a member of the party’s National Executive committee.”

Former chief minister Amarinder Singh joined the BJP in September and merged his Punjab Lok Congress with it. The 80-year-old veteran quit the Congress after being replaced by Charanjit Singh Channi ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections last year.

Former Punjab Congress President Sunil Jakhar had joined the BJP in March days after he quit the grand old party lashing out at former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Twitter, saying that he was “not an asset” as portrayed by the party leadership.

A three-term MLA and a former Lok Sabha member from Gurdaspur, Jakhar was removed from all party posts by the Congress disciplinary committee following allegations of anti-party activities by certain Punjab unit leaders against him.

Meanwhile, Swatantra Dev Singh, an influential OBC leader, had played a crucial role in the BJP’s second consecutive win in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and was elevated to the post of the state BJP chief in 2019.

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