Day After Resigning From AAP, 3 Sitting Punjab MLAs Join BJP In New Delhi | Political Pulse News
A day after resigning from the primary membership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), three of its sitting MLAs — Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra from Sanaur, Chetan Singh Jauramajra from Samana and Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh from Amritsar North — joined the BJP in New Delhi on Monday.
Sources said the BJP is likely to field all three from the same Assembly constituencies they won in the 2022 Assembly elections, amid indications that their prospects of securing AAP tickets had become increasingly bleak.
The AAP was quick to dismiss the development and put up a brave face with state spokesperson Neel Garg saying the party had already distanced itself from the three MLAs. “The departure of three MLAs makes no difference to the AAP. The people’s trust is our biggest strength,” he added.
State BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon, however, indicated that more leaders could follow suit, saying several others were likely to leave “the AAP’s sinking ship”. He also promised that the three new entrants would receive their due recognition in the BJP.
The political trajectories of the three leaders, however, point to different fault lines within the ruling party, ranging from controversy and marginalisation to ideological differences and open dissent.
Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, 51
Pathanmajra, popularly known as “fufad” in Punjab’s political circles as he is the uncle of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s wife, Dr Gurpreet Kaur, comes from a politically influential family associated with the early history of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
A political nomad of sorts, he has had stints with the SAD, People’s Party of Punjab, AAP, Congress and Punjab Ekta Party before rejoining the AAP in December 2020. Despite his frequent party switches, Pathanmajra has continued to describe SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal as his political guru, saying he learnt his early lessons in politics from him.
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In 2022, he won the Sanaur seat in Patiala district, defeating SAD candidate Harinder Pal Singh Chandumajra by 49,112 votes.
His relations with the AAP government deteriorated sharply after he was booked in alleged rape and illegal mining cases in September 2025. Declared a proclaimed offender in December that year, he was arrested near Gwalior in March this year. He was granted bail in both cases in May and subsequently resumed public engagements.
After joining the BJP, Pathanmajra alleged that those who raised their voices for Punjab or their constituencies were being targeted. Claiming that false cases had been registered against him, he said the BJP could end the drug mafia in Punjab just as it had ended “goonda raj” in Uttar Pradesh. “Udta Punjab will become ‘ubharta Punjab (rising Punjab)’ if the BJP is voted to power,” he said.
Chetan Singh Jauramajra, 59
For Jauramajra, the journey from a powerful Cabinet position to political isolation was considerably shorter.
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A first-time MLA, he won the Samana seat in 2022, defeating veteran SAD leader Surjit Singh Rakhra by 39,713 votes. He was inducted into the Cabinet in July 2022 as Health and Family Welfare Minister but soon courted controversy after making Dr Raj Bahadur, then Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, lie on a dirty mattress during an inspection of a hospital in Faridkot.
He lost the Health portfolio in January 2023 but was given the Water Resources, Public Relations and Mining portfolios, among others. He was eventually dropped from the Cabinet in September 2024.
The political equations shifted further in May this year when Rakhra joined the AAP. Jauramajra was increasingly sidelined thereafter, with the entry of his former electoral rival seen as further weakening his position within the party.
Over the past few months, Jauramajra had also begun openly highlighting schemes of the Union government on his social media platforms.
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Following his induction into the BJP on Monday, he attacked the AAP government, alleging Delhi-based teams had taken control of government offices and even elected representatives. He questioned how MLAs could bring central funds to their constituencies if they were not allowed to meet Union ministers.
Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, 57
Singh’s exit marks the departure of one of the AAP’s most prominent faces in Amritsar.
A former IPS officer, he tendered his resignation on April 14, 2021, shortly after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the SIT investigation into the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case and directed the state government to constitute a fresh SIT without him. His resignation was subsequently accepted by the Punjab government.
In July 2021, he joined the AAP in the presence of party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
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Singh won the Amritsar North seat in 2022 by a margin of more than 28,000 votes but continued to be known for expressing views independent of the party line. In June 2025, he was suspended from the party for five years over alleged anti-party activities.
During the 2022 Assembly election campaign, he campaigned in more than 70 of the state’s 117 constituencies and was the AAP’s face for its promise of delivering justice in the sacrilege and police firing cases.
Partap said he had joined the AAP believing in its promise to deliver justice in these cases but was disappointed by the slow progress. On Monday, he said gangsters and the drug mafia were at their peak in Punjab and described his five-year stint in the AAP as an “internship” that had now ended.
His closeness to the BJP had come into focus much earlier. In September, his pictures featured on campaign material of the BJP’s “Nasha Mukt Yatra” in Amritsar and surrounding areas. He did not object to their use, saying that tackling drugs was a social cause and he had no problem with his photograph being displayed.
