Sushil Kumar RinkuAam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) only Lok Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Rinku is expected to join the BJP today, according to sources. Rinku became the Lok Sabha MP from Jalandhar in Punjab last year after winning a bypoll. He won the seat with a huge margin. A former Congress MLA, Rinku had switched to the AAP in April last year.
The AAP has already announced Rinku as the party’s Jalandhar candidate. Reports suggest that he is seeking financial support from the party for his campaign. He is also said to be upset as most of his projects that he had promised ahead of his 2023 bypoll had not taken off.
Last week, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met with Rinku to address his concerns.
Dismissing all rumours about his possible switch to the BJP, Rinku said, “I have no issues with my party. My meeting with the CM was only to discuss and plan my campaign. It was a one-to-one meeting with the CM and hence all discussions around it are only speculative. I have no demand regarding funds as I do not go extravagant in my campaigns. The buzz over my talks with the BJP is also trash. I have no issues with pending projects like that of sports university in Jalandhar as it usually takes two to three years for a project to take shape and these will eventually complete before 2027.”
The Jalandhar seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary. Rinku broke Congress’ 24-year grip on Jalandhar after defeating Chaudhary’s wife Karamjit Kaur with a thumping margin of over 58,000 votes.
While the AAP rejected an alliance with the Congress in Punjab and decided to fight all 13 seats alone, Rinku had batted for a tie-up. Rinku spent most of his political career with the Congress. He also urged both the parties, members of the INDIA bloc, to leave aside personal interests for the country’s sake.
In an interview with a TV channel, Rinku had said that a Congress-AAP alliance would be beneficial for both. “If an alliance between both the parties could happen in other parts of the country, why could it not materialise in Punjab? It is not a local election, but a country’s election aiming to save democracy,” he said.