Chandigarh: Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Anil Joshi along with other saffron party leaders joined the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Chandigarh on Friday.
He was expelled from the party for supporting farmers.
“BJP expelled me for raising voice for people and farmers. The Punjab is not belong to a particular community or cast but belongs to everyone but BJP is attempting to create a division in Punjab,” he said while addressing a gathering.
SAD party president Sukhbir Singh Badal joined Joshi in the party along with Former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha state chief Mohit Gupta, who hails from Bathinda, a former ex-MLA from Hoshiarpur district, a former Ludhiana deputy mayor and a party leader who contested the previous assembly polls from Ludhiana district are among others likely to switch over to SAD, a senior Akali familiar with the development said.
“We have worked with SAD and they can serve the interests of all Punjabis that’s why we joined Akali Dal,” said Joshi.
Joshi further said the SAD-BJP alliance had been stitched by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and was done to remove the frictions in society after a period of terrorism. He said the alliance had sent out a message of peace and had resulted in tranquility and prosperity in Punjab.
He said he was forced to take the extreme step of quitting a party which he had nourished because the BJP turned a blind eye to the genuine demands of farmers. “Even our State leaders misled the central leadership”. He said he had decided to join the SAD because it was the lone party which stood for regional aspirations. “The Congress party does not understand the pain of Punjabis while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) only wants yes men as legislators whom it controls by remote from Delhi ”.
Terming the induction of the senior BJP leaders into the SAD fold as a historic event, Badal said , “I will forfeit my life but won’t let peace and communal harmony of Punjab be destroyed at any cost”. He also led the party in passing a resolution dedicating the historic day to the Kisani Sangharsh as well as supreme sacrifice made by Sant Harchand Singh Longowal for the cause of communal harmony.
The BJP in July had expelled Joshi for six years after he opprobrium state and the central leadership for mishandling the farm agitation.
Interestingly, Joshi’s relationship with the SAD was not so cordial when he was local bodies minister during the Parkash Singh Badal-led previous government in Punjab as he had compared then SAD-led government’s rule with Aurangzeb’s rule after his brother was attacked allegedly by Akali workers in Tarn Taran in 2015.