New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS) Ahead of the upcoming Punjab Assembly polls, former DGP Sarbdeep Singh Virk, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Sarabjit Singh Makkar, and other prominent leaders on Friday joined the BJP.
Virk, Makkar and others like Punjab Cooperative Bank's former Chairman Avtar Singh Zira, industrialist Harcharan Singh Ranauta joined the saffron party here in presence of Union Minister and BJP Punjab election in-charge Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Union Minister Som Prakash was also present.
Welcoming the leaders in the party, Shekhawat said that the BJP will be strengthened in Punjab. "They have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and they will strengthen the organisation in the state. BJP is moving ahead in Punjab and will create a new history," he said, noting all the new joinees are prominent names in their respective fields.
Makkar said: "I had said that the day Prime Minister Modi will take back the farm laws, I will join the BJP and today I have done the same."
He claimed that in coming days, more people will join the BJP.
On December 1, SAD leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa had joined the BJP. Before joining the BJP in the evening, Sirsa resigned the post of president Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee. In August, five SAD leaders had joined the BJP.
The issue was up for deliberation on Wednesday during the meeting between the party leaders and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Congress' Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat.
In an apparent embarrassment for the ruling Congress in Punjab, its legislator Joginder Pal and his security men allegedly assaulted a youth who questioned him about the work done in the constituency in nearly five years. A video of the incident has gone viral on social media.
The fresh travel advisory says that fully-vaccinated travellers coming from a country with which India has arrangements for mutual acceptance of WHO approved Covid-19 vaccines shall be allowed to leave the airport after producing a negative RT-PCR test report, and will not have to undergo home quarantine and testing.
Four more persons, including a BJP leader who was seen inside the SUV that mowed down protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3, have been arrested.
Referring to the killing on October 15 of a Dalit labourer from Tarn Taran in Punjab, and latest disclosures in the media, the Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the Home portfolio, promised complete justice, saying the government will reach to the bottom of the case and expose the conspirators behind the incident.
The activists entered the AIIMS premises raising slogans for immediate action against the students who performed the Ramlila skit. They tried to break into the AIIMS hostel, but were stopped by the police who took them outside the AIIMS premises.
