Having left Cong for AAP, Chahal & Madan now join BJP

Tribune News Service

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, February 20

Two former Congress councillors who had earlier shifted their loyalty to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have now joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The two former councillors are Sukhdev Singh Chahal of Ward 46 and Rajesh Madan of Ward 21.

A total of five former councillors from the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress joined the BJP along with their supporters and families, claimed Harvinder Singh Sandhu, district president (Urban), BJP.

Sukhdev Singh Chahal and Rajesh Madan had earlier left the Congress and joined the Aam Aadmi Party on March 13, 2022, in the presence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Apart from this, councillors of Amritsar Cantonment Ramesh Kumar Bablu, former councillors Mandeep Sharma and Tarun Bhatti joined the BJP in the presence of Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, state BJP president Ashwani Sharma and former Rajya Sabha member Shwait Malik.

As per the information, the AAP had reportedly refused a party ticket to them for the upcoming MC elections. Meanwhile, the Congress has already declared that they will not give party tickets to turncoats, who had left after the AAP came to power in March 2022. As many as 25 Congress councillors had joined the AAP after the shift in power. There was a strong resistance among AAP volunteers regarding the joining of Congress councillors and they were demanding not to give representation to these newcomers. In case the AAP did not give tickets to former councillors, more ward representatives would leave AAP, claimed a senior Congress councillor.

The MC elections are expected to be held in May as the process of delimitation of wards may get completed by March. The move by Sukhdev Singh Chahal and Rajesh Madan is being seen as an embarrassment for AAP which won 92 assembly seats last year but failed.to satisfy its cadre.

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