Suspended AAP MP Harinder Khalsa joins BJP

New Delhi, Mar 28: Harinder Singh Khalsa, a sitting MP who was suspended from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in presence of Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday.

Khalsa is one of the four AAP MPs in the Lok Sabha. The AAP could manage to win just four seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and these four wins came from Punjab.

Khalsa was suspended from the AAP in 2015. Before that, he was in the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) which is an ally of the BJP and an NDA constituent.

Khalsa is a 1974 batch IFS officer. He was posted in Oslo, Norway, during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He had quit the job in protest against the genocide of Sikhs.

In 1996, he was elected as MP from Bhatinda Lok Sabha seat on a SAD ticket.

After joining the BJP, Khalsa said that the BJP is the only party which can lead the country in the right direction.

"I am joining the BJP without any conditions. I am an admirer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said.

The BJP is in alliance with the SAD in Punjab and will contest on 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.