Set back for Congress in Punjab: Senior leader Jagmeet Brar quits party, likely to join BJP

Chandigarh, Jan 5: Senior Congress leader from Punjab Jagmeet Singh Brar on Monday resigned from the party. He is likely to join the BJP.

Brar, a former Congress MP from Punjab, was with the party for nearly 35 years.

"I have resigned from the primary membership of the Congress party. I will decide the future course of action soon," Brar told the media here.

There is strong speculation that he is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP, which has had an alliance government in Punjab with the Shiromani Akali Dal since 2007, has been looking for leaders with good political base in the Malwa belt.

The Akali Dal enjoys considerable influence in this belt.

A former Congress Working Committee member, Brar was suspended from the Congress in August 2014 following his outburst against the Congress leadership after the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.

He had then said that the Congress leaders should go on a sabbatical.

Birender Singh, another Congress leader and a former CWC member but from Haryana, was also suspended from the Congress along with Brar.

Birender Singh then joined the BJP and is now a cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government. The BJP got him elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana.

IANS