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Fatehgarh Sahib MP Harinder Singh Khalsa, who was suspended from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2015, joined the BJP in New Delhi on Thursday.
Khalsa, a former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, joined the party in the presence of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Khalsa had been elected from the Fatehgarh Sahib reserved constituency in the 2014 elections but he and Patiala MP Dr Dharamvir Gandhi fell foul of the AAP national leadership soon after, allegedly because they had demanded more transparency in functioning and autonomy for the state unit. Follow more election news here.
Both had attended a parallel rally in Baba Bakala in August 2015 where AAP had also held a conference. They were suspended for anti-party activities and had remained so since then.
Khalsa had started his political career with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and has remained MP from Bathinda while he was with the party. He had resigned from the IFS in the wake of Operation Blue Star in 1984 when the Army stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out militants holed inside.
The other suspended MP, Dr Gandhi, has also floated his own political outfit — Nava Punjab Party — and is standing for re-election from Patiala under its banner.
