“Bhagwant Mann Has Destroyed Punjab”: Three AAP MLAs Join the BJP Before Elections

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab was particularly concerned on Monday. Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, a former IPS officer and suspended AAP MLA, rejoined the legislature this morning. He joined the BJP a few hours later. A united front was shown by two additional suspended MLAs who left the party on Sunday and joined the BJP. Due to their anti-party actions, all three were suspended.

The AAP is facing a political struggle ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, which are scheduled for early next year, and the resignations occur at a critical juncture. For the official joining ceremony, MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh from the Amritsar North seat, Chetan Singh Jouramajra from Samana, and Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra from Sanour in Punjab’s Patiala district arrived at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.

The changeover to the BJP was finished with a traditional membership joining slip, BJP flags around their necks, huge handshakes, and smiles. To show togetherness, the three new recruits and other BJP officials clasped hands and raised them high above their heads. They were always grinning.

The incident coincides with the AAP’s announcement on Saturday of its initial list of forty candidates, which included Minister Sanjeev Arora, who is presently incarcerated, from Ludhiana West, Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan from Kotkapura, and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from Dhuri.

Kunwar Vijay Pratap, who was suspended from the AAP in June of last year, urged everyone to rise above “the politics of lanes and ribbon-cutting” and restore Punjab to its former status as a progressive state by describing it as “trapped by drugs, extortion, gangsterism and corruption” in a post on X.

“In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party is finished; Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann themselves have brought about its end. The Aam Aadmi Party, for all practical purposes, no longer exists. A ‘double-engine’ government will be formed in Punjab as well,” Kunwar Pratap said after joining the BJP.

“As for the crime rate, I served as an SP in Amritsar; back in 2007, 2008, and 2009, we completely eradicated both the drug menace and crime. However, after I left, the situation was never brought under control again,” he added.

“When the Aam Aadmi Party first arrived in Punjab-they presented a very compelling vision. It was precisely because of those ideas that the Aam Aadmi Party was able to form a government within such a vast political system. However, over time, those who spoke up-those who championed the cause of Punjab-began to have their wings clipped. Today, Punjab is often referred to as ‘Udta Punjab’, but we all aspire to transform it into a ‘Ubharta Punjab‘. AAP have pushed Punjab into a quagmire. The Aam Aadmi Party has taken on more debt than any other government, leaving Punjab in a dire state,” he said.

Sukbir Badal, the leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal, took a jab at the AAP by predicting that Bhagwant Mann would lose his seat and that everyone would quit the ruling party. “No one will be left in the AAP. Everyone will leave. Only a lucky few among them will become MLAs. Bhagwant Mann himself will lose his election from Dhuri. People are fed up with them,” Sukhbir Badal said.