The Bharatiya Janata Party, so far, has remained just a marginal player in Punjab, both in terms of the legislative assembly as well as the parliament because of its longtime alliance, now broken, with the Shiromani Akali Dal. 

A tale of three brothers-in-law in Shiromani Akali Dal.

For the BJP, his presence would have been of immense help when it is battling it out so hard in Punjab in the face of protests and disruptions by some farmers’ groups. If Amarinder were in action, the farmers may have thought twice about opposing the BJP, since he (Amarinder) has always been known to be a pro-farmer leader. 

"To ensure higher voter turnout and safeguard public health, I, on behalf of BJP Punjab, request that the voting hours be extended to include cooler periods of the day and the voting be allowed from 6 am to 7 pm," the BJP leader said.

Badal on Wednesday expelled Kahlon from the primary membership of the SAD for "anti-party" activities and "backstabbing" the party.

The ruling family has continued the political tradition in the post-independent India also, first through Maharaja Yadvinder Singh, a great nationalist, who had a great role supporting Sardar Patel in a great way to unify all the princely states, and continued by his son Capt Amarinder Singh, who rose to become the Chief Minister of Punjab twice.

There are still some more candidates to be announced by the Congress, the BJP and the Akali Dal. The political grapevine does not rule out the fielding of a few more turncoats who may end up making the final cut.

The party already has a strong support base among the Hindu community in Punjab, which is likely to get manifested more prominently in parliamentary elections because of the Modi factor.

"I will roar in Parliament. At least, trust me once," he said.

Both the leaders joined the saffron party in the presence of Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and its national general secretary Vinod Tawde. Bittu told reporters that he had been feeling "suffocated" in the Congress after being with the party for over 35 years. 

The announcement was made by the party's national general secretary Sandeep Pathak via post on X.

The two mainstream parties, the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal have not announced any candidate so far.