NEW DELHI: Ahead of Assembly polls, several leaders from Punjab including former MLA Arvind Khanna, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Gurdeep Singh Gosha, and former Amritsar councillor Dharamveer Sarin joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday in the presence of Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat at the party office in the national capital.The term of the Punjab Assembly will end in March. The Assembly polls in Punjab are scheduled to take place in a single phase on February 14, with the counting of votes scheduled for March 10.In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years. Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the second-largest party winning 20 seats in 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) could only manage to win 15 seats while the BJP secured 3 seats.Speaking on the occasion, Shekhawat while commenting on the remarks of Opposition leaders claimng that the Prime Minister had to return without attending a rally he was acheduled to address n Punjab’s Ferozepur owing to low turnout od public, said, “Ferozepur was going to witness highest ever turnout at any political rally in Punjab. But political workers, in collusion with police, stopped not only the public but also PM from attending the rally.”It has only strengthened resolve of BJP workers,” he added.Shekhawat’s remarks came days after Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, a day after PM Modi’s security breach in his state, had claimed that “barely 700 people turned up at the rally site which forced the Prime Minister to retrace his steps” and later the blame was pinned on the Punjab Government citing security threat.Earlier this month, PM Modi’s convoy was stuck on a flyover when he was on his way to Hussainiwala in Ferozepur district to visit National Martyr’s Memorial.
