By India Today News Desk: Former Punjab Assembly Speaker and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Charanjit Singh Atwal joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday.
He was inducted into the party in the presence of party president JP Nadda at his residence here.
The 86-year-old resigned from SAD’s primary membership on April 19.
He was the deputy speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009. He was also the assembly speaker of the Punjab Assembly twice.
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Charanjit Singh Atwal’s son Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, who recently joined the BJP, is contesting the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-poll, slated to be held on May 10. Results will be declared on May 13.
By-poll to this seat was necessitated following the demise of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January this year.
Jalandhar parliamentary constituency has been a Congress stronghold since 1999. The by-poll will see a four-cornered contest with the Congress, BJP, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and SAD-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance eyeing a win.
The BJP is contesting its first Lok Sabha poll on its own in Punjab after SAD broke ties with it in 2020.
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The Congress nominee is Karamjit Kaur, who is the wife of late Santokh Chaudhary. AAP’s candidate is former legislator Sushil Rinku, who joined the Arvind Kejriwal-led party after breaking ties with Congress.
Two-time MLA Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi is the BSP-backed SAD candidate.
(with inputs from PTI)
