In a coordinated political move, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, Chetan Singh Jouramajra and Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra have crossed over from the AAP to the BJP. Their exit adds to the challenges facing the ruling party ahead of the Punjab polls.
BY PC Bureau
November 2: The BJP has on Monday inducted three suspended Aam Aadmi Party legislators from Punjab into its fold as the state gears up for the 2027 Assembly elections.
The biggest name among the defectors is former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who resigned as Amritsar North MLA on Monday morning before joining the BJP hours later. Chetan Singh Jouramajra and Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, who had quit the AAP on Sunday, also joined the saffron party, turning their exit into a coordinated show of political defiance.
All three legislators had been suspended by the AAP over alleged anti-party activities. Their departure adds to the challenges facing the ruling party as it prepares for a crucial electoral battle in the state.
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The three leaders arrived at the BJP headquarters in Delhi for their formal induction.
The joining ceremony was marked by familiar political optics: membership slips, BJP flags draped around their necks, warm handshakes and raised hands as the new entrants and BJP leaders projected a show of unity.
The defections come days after the AAP announced its first list of 40 candidates for the Assembly elections. The list includes Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from Dhuri, Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan from Kotkapura and jailed minister Sanjeev Arora from Ludhiana West.
VIDEO | Delhi: MLAs Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, Chetan Singh Jouramajra and Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh join BJP. Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon and Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva felicitate their induction into the party.
All the three MLAs were formerly with the AAP.
(Full video available on PTI Videos – https://t.co/bIyFWTfmBd)
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 2, 2026
In a post on X, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who was suspended from the AAP in June last year, called for a collective effort to move beyond what he described as “the politics of lanes and ribbon-cutting”. He said Punjab, which he claimed was trapped by drugs, extortion, gangsterism and corruption, needed to be restored as a progressive state.
Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal seized on the defections to attack the ruling party, predicting that more AAP leaders would quit and that Bhagwant Mann would lose his seat in Dhuri.
“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,” Badal said.
