BJP Treats Turncoats Like Disposable Pawns; Jakhar & Ravneet Bittu Prime Examples: Harpal Cheema

The AAP has alleged that the BJP has turned politics into a marketplace where loyalty, ideology and public mandate are traded for power, using turncoat leaders as disposable pawns to advance its political interests.

Citing leaders such as Sunil Jakhar and Ravneet Singh Bittu as prime examples of what he termed the BJP's “use and throw” culture, senior AAP leader and Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday claimed the saffron party lures opposition faces to manufacture an illusion of political growth in the state, only to marginalise them once their usefulness expires.

The BJP on Thursday announced candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in five states, fielding its national general secretary Tarun Chugh from Madhya Pradesh and Satish Poonia from Rajasthan.

The name of Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, a sitting Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan, did not figure in the list. Bittu’s term in the Upper House ends on June 21.

Notably, both Bittu and Jakhar joined the BJP after switching sides from the Congress.

While Bittu joined the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Jakhar switched over to the saffron side in 2022.

Jakhar was appointed Punjab BJP chief a year later. Kewal Singh Dhillon, a former Congress leader who joined the BJP in 2022, succeeded him as the state unit chief recently.

On Wednesday, Bittu, the minister of state for Railways and food processing industries, expressed his desire to contest the Punjab elections scheduled next year, saying he wants to work for his home state after spending nearly 17 years in Parliament.

Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated in 1995.

Reacting to Bittu's remarks, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday claimed that the BJP leader would soon lose both his ministerial berth and Rajya Sabha seat.

Mann also claimed that the BJP has asked Bittu to prove his worth by winning the Assembly polls.

Cheema said on Thursday that the politically conscious electorate of Punjab can see through the BJP's desperate attempts to gain a foothold in the state but they "will not be misled by the party's efforts to hide its anti-Punjab agenda behind imported faces from other parties".

“The BJP treats turncoat politicians as disposable commodities to satisfy its hunger for power. Recent political shifts reveal its complete disregard for the Punjab leaders it ropes in, using them strictly for short-term gains before tossing them aside," Cheema alleged.

“The BJP has reduced politics to a marketplace of opportunism, and leaders like Ravneet Bittu and Sunil Jakhar are the perfect and most recent examples of its 'use and throw' strategy,” he added.

Cheema also alleged that the BJP has no respect for ideology, loyalty, or the mandate of the people, as it systematically targets the opposition leaders, lures them to switch sides to create a false narrative of growth in Punjab, and once their utility is over, it ruthlessly marginalises them." “By embracing the BJP, these leaders have not only compromised the interests of Punjab but have willingly walked into a political trap. The BJP's standard operating procedure is to exploit opposition faces to shield itself from public anger, only to discard them when they are no longer useful," Cheema claimed.

“The anti-Punjab stance of the BJP cannot be hidden behind the induction of a few opportunistic faces, and the people of Punjab are aware of that,” he added.

Cheema also claimed that while the BJP relies on political engineering and deception, the AAP and the Punjab government will continue to fight for the rights, dignity and prosperity of every Punjabi.