Neeraj Bagga
Amritsar, January 23
Former prominent Congress leaders who shifted their loyalty to the BJP are now making the saffron party leaders and ticket seekers apprehensive. They feel that they would be minnows in front of their political stature.
Former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and former MP Sunil Jakhar have direct access to the Central leadership of the BJP while former Congress ministers Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Rajkumar Verka, Sunder Sham Arora, Balbir Singh Sidhu and Rana Gurmeet Sodhi exercise sway in political circles of the state.
Capt Amarinder’s daughter Jai Inder Kaur and Sonu Sood’s sister Malvika Sood, who took part in the two-day executive meeting of Punjab BJP here, also have their star approach.
Several of them, including Jakhar, Rajkumar Verka, Jai Inder Kaur and Malvika Sood were present in the meeting.
The dominance of former Congress leaders was visible in the list of state office-bearers recently announced by the BJP. Most of those who joined the BJP belonged to different factions of the Congress.
Sources in the BJP state that these Congress leaders parachuted into the saffron party may take away a lion’s share of party tickets in the 13 parliamentary seats of the state.
A section of them expressed concern that they may have to face the same treatment meted out to them by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) during the coalition.
