Two big shots, including former Indian Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu, joined the BJP on Tuesday amid the possibility that he may be fielded in the Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar in Punjab.
Besides in a blow to the JMM and INDIA Bloc, Sita Soren, a three-term MLA and sister-in-law of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, quit the party and joined the BJP.
Sita’s decision to join the BJP is a shot in the arm for the party’s efforts to boost its connect with the Scheduled Tribes, a community that has been the main vote base of the JMM.
While Sandhu joined the party in the presence of its general secretaries Vinod Tawde and Tarun Chugh, Sita joined the BJP in New Delhi in the presence of Tawde and Jharkhand poll in-charge Laxmikant Bajpai.
Joining the BJP, Sandhu spoke about the growth of the India-US relationship and said development has been its focus area in a host of fields such as the semiconductor industry. This development should also reach hometown Amritsar, he said, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda for his political innings.
Sita tendered her resignation from the JMM, claiming that she was being neglected and isolated. A rift in the Soren family had surfaced after she had openly opposed any move to make Kalpana Soren, wife of Hemant Soren, who is behind bars in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam, as Chief Minister of Jharkhand.
