In a major setback to the Arvind Kejriwal, the  Aam Aadmi Party’s MP and lone Lok Sabha member  Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the BJP on Wednesday along with party MLA Sheetal Angural, dealing a blow to the party already facing a crisis following the arrest of its leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Rinku, the MP from Jalandhar in Punjab, and Angural, who was elected to the State Assembly from Jalandhar West, joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and its national general secretary Vinod Tawde.

The MP said he was joining the BJP for the development of Punjab, especially Jalandhar, and accused the state’s AAP government of not helping him in development works. Last year, Rinku won in a by-poll in Jalandhar becoming the Lok Sabha MP with a significant margin.

He said he was impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and lauded the Union government for its development initiatives.

The parliamentarian had quit the Congress to join AAP last year to fight the bypoll to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat. He had been vocal in criticising the BJP in the Lok Sabha. Rinku was even suspended from the House for his unruly protests. The BJP is likely to field him in the Lok Sabha polls as the party inducts a number of influential leaders of different parties in Punjab to emerge as a strong force in the state with 13 constituencies.

AAP Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural on Wednesday announced he is quitting the party.

“I am resigning from all responsibilities of the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party),” Angural said in a post on Facebook. Angural had won the Jalandhar West assembly seat in Punjab by defeating Sushil Kumar Rinku of the Congress during the 2022 assembly elections.

Three-term Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu from Punjab joined the BJP on Tuesday and asserted that people have made up their minds to elect Prime Minister Modi to power again. Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, a hero of the anti-terrorism campaign in the state who was assassinated in a terror attack while still in office.