Punjab polls 2022: Former ministers, MPs, MLAs likely to join BJP soon

Ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections scheduled next year, around 15 to 20 people including former state Cabinet ministers, MPs, MLAs, Punjabi singers, and Punjabi celebrities are likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Many of these high-profile people are believed to be in contact with the BJP. "Since a lot of people are joining BJP, it will take some time. The joining is likely to happen only after four-five days," news agency ANI reported quoting sources.

"The anger that Punjab has faced, whether it is terrorism or drugs, should be ended. Good people should be in power so that youth can be benefitted. Those who are literate are moving abroad and settling there," sources added.

The political scenario in Punjab changed a lot after former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh left the Congress following infighting with the state party president Navjot Singh Sidhu. Captain Singh went on to form his own political party Punjab Lok Congress and has recently formed an alliance with the BJP.

In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority by winning 77 seats in the 117-member Assembly, ending the 10-year rule of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government. The SAD had won 15 seats and the BJP 3 seats in the 2017 polls.