Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh will join the BJP on September 19. Amarinder Singh will also merge his 'Punjab Lok Congress' (PLC) party with the BJP on the same day. Along with the Captain, 5-6 former Punjab ministers close to him will also join the BJP. Along with this, it is also being speculated that many major reshuffles can be seen in Punjab BJP.
The BJP is preparing to reorganize the party in Punjab, as the tenure of the current BJP state president Ashwani Sharma is about to end. In such a situation, after the merger of Punjab Lok Congress with BJP, the party leadership can entrust important responsibilities in Punjab to the Captain and his close ones.
The BJP currently has only two MLAs in the 117-member Punjab Assembly.
Recently, Sunil Jakhar of Congress joined BJP, Jakhar has experience in politics, and it is expected that Jhakar can be given important responsibility in the coming elections by BJP.
The 3-year tenure of Ashwani Sharma, who became the head of the Punjab BJP unit in January 2020, ended in January 2023. However, after the Captain joins the party and the merger of PLC, the BJP high command can announce a new state executive before that.
Discussions about the merger of Captain Amarinder Singh's PLC with the BJP gained momentum when the Captain held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi for about a quarter of an hour a month ago.
BJP had an alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab for 24 years, but on 26 September 2020, Shiromani Akali Dal broke this alliance on the issue of 3 farming laws of the Modi government. The Punjab BJP leaders at that time were also not in favor of continuing this alliance, as his role with the Akalis was always that of a 'younger brother'. The Akali Dal used to give only 23 seats to the BJP out of 117 in the Punjab Assembly.
After the break-up of the alliance with the Akali Dal, the BJP contested the Punjab Assembly elections in alliance with the Captain and Sukhdev Dhindsa's party SAD (United) who broke away from the Akali Dal, putting themselves in the role of 'elder brother'. BJP fielded 65 candidates, Dhindsa's party 15 and Captain's PLC 37 seats.
In the storm of AAP, BJP could win only 2 seats and lost many of its traditional seats. No candidate along with Captain and Dhindsa could win.
Barring some urban areas of Punjab, the BJP has neither the base nor the cadre in the rest of the state. The party doesn't even have a big Sikh face. The people of Punjab also consider the BJP as their adversary because of the farmers' agitation which lasted throughout the year against the farming laws.
In such a situation, the BJP high command is forced to take the help of Captain Amarinder or Jakhar to establish its roots here. The BJP wants to reach out to the entire state by bringing along the Captain and former Congress MLAs, ministers and MPs who have been party's loyalists.