Former diplomat Sandhu joins BJP, latest to take the political plunge

The BJP won two of Punjab's 13 seats in 2019, including Sunny Deol from Gurdaspur, who defeated Jakhar, and former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Som Prakash from Hoshiarpur

India’s former ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday. He is another addition to a growing list of retired bureaucrats and those who have taken voluntary retirement and joined the BJP in recent years.

Since retiring from the Indian Foreign Service at the end of January and returning from the US, Sandhu has reached out to a cross-section of society in his hometown, Amritsar, which has contributed to the speculation that he could contest the Lok Sabha (LS) as a BJP candidate from that seat.

The BJP is unlikely to ally with the Shiromani Akali Dal and now has several leaders in its ranks in Punjab who were earlier with the Congress and capable of increasing its LS tally from the state.

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Congress’ Patiala LS Member of Parliament Preneet Kaur joined the BJP last week. Her husband, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, joined the BJP in September 2022. Former Congress leader Sunil Jakhar is currently the BJP’s state unit chief.

The BJP won two of Punjab’s 13 seats in 2019, including Sunny Deol from Gurdaspur, who defeated Jakhar, and former Indian Administrative Service officer Som Prakash from Hoshiarpur. Former diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri lost the LS election from Amritsar in 2019. He is a BJP Rajya Sabha MP and a Union minister.

After joining the BJP, Sandhu addressed a press conference in the national capital. Sandhu, India’s ambassador to the US for four years from February 2020 until the end of January this year, underlined that the India-US bilateral relationship in these four years has graduated to “a win-win partnership” in at least five sectors. He said the US investments into India have increased, as the joint statement issued during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last year mentioned. There is greater cooperation in health care, education, manufacturing of semiconductors, and solar energy.

ROLL CALL

TARANJIT SINGH SANDHU: Former IFS, likely to contest from Amritsar

ABHIJIT GANGOPADHYAY: Former Calcutta High Court judge, recently joined BJP, could contest LS polls

R K Singh: Former IAS, Union minister, LS MP from Arrah in 2014 and 2019

S JAISHANKAR: Former foreign secretary, Union minister, RS MP

HARDEEP SINGH PURI: Former IFS, Union minister, RS MP

SATYA PAL SINGH: former IPS, LS MP from Baghpat in 2014 and 2019

ASHWINI VAISHNAW: Former IAS, Union minister, RS MP

SOM PRAKASH: Former IAS, Union minister, LS MP (Hoshiarpur)

ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL: Former IAS, Union minister, LS MP from Bikaner

APARAJITA SARANGI: Former IAS, LS MP from Bhubaneswar

O P CHOUDHARY: Former IAS, Chhattisgarh finance minister, MLA from Raigarh

NEELKANTH TEKAM: Former IAS, MLA from Chhattisgarh’s Keshkal

GENERAL (RETIRED) V K SINGH: Union minister, LS MP from Ghaziabad