New Delhi: Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and former MP Sunil Jakhar have been appointed as members of the BJP's National Executive, reported news agency ANI. On the other hand, Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, Manoranjan Kalia and Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia have been made special invitees to the National Executive. Former Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill has been appointed as the national spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Shergill reacted on Twitter saying, "I express my heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah for appointing me as the national spokesperson of the world's largest party."
The 39-year-old Jaiveer is a lawyer by profession in the Supreme Court of India and as a spokesperson of the Congress, he has been presenting the party's side in debates on TV channels. He has been one of the youngest spokespersons of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and has the youngest person to be appointed as the Co-Chairman of the Congress Legal Cell for Punjab. He has also served as the Young India Representative for the International Bar Association for a period of two years 2008-09.
On September 19, ten months following his unceremonious exit from the Congress, Amarinder Singh joined the BJP in New Delhi in the presence of Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Kiren Rijiju, BJP leader Sunil Jakhar and BJP Punjab chief Ashwani Sharma.
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The 80-year-old veteran politician, who quit the Congress in November last year amid a bitter power tussle with then Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu, also merged his newly formed Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) with the BJP.
Former Congress leader and deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly Ajaib Singh Bhatti also joined BJP. In all, seven former MLAs and one former MP joined the BJP along with Amarinder Singh.
Singh formed the Punjab Lok Congress party last year just ahead of the Punjab assembly election. However, his party failed to win any seat in the polls, which was won by the Aam Aadmi Party. Singh himself lost from his home turf of Patiala Urban to AAP's greenhorn Ajit Pal Kohli by over 13,000 votes.