SAD to Congress to BJP and back: Arvind Khanna completes full circle

Chandigarh: Punjab BJP vice-president and former MLA Arvind Khanna on Sunday quit the BJP and joined the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Sangrur, returning to the party he started his political career with before he went on to make switches from the Akali Dal to the Congress and then to the BJP.After joining SAD, while responding to a media query on any probable SAD-BJP alliance, Khanna said, "When I was there [in BJP] I advocated for the alliance, and when I am here [in SAD] I am for the alliance. The welfare of Punjab lies in the alliance between the two parties. Ask anyone in Punjab and they will say that there should be an alliance between SAD and BJP." He, however, added that eventually it was for the top leadership of BJP and SAD president Sukhbir Badal to take a call on re-stitching the alliance. Sukhbir, who inducted Khanna back into the party, appointed him the constituency in-charge of Sangrur, the constituency which elected him MLA for the first time on a Congress ticket in 2002.The industrialist-turned-politician, considered close to former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh when he was the Congress general secretary, was elected MLA for the second time on a Congress ticket from Dhuri in 2012. Khanna resigned as Dhuri MLA and from Congress in 2015. He remained politically inactive before he joined BJP in Jan 2022 and was appointed Punjab BJP vice-president. He had joined Congress in 1998. Prior to it, he started his political journey as Youth Akali Dal general secretary. Khanna is a close friend of Sukhbir, who introduced him to politics. He contested the 2022 Punjab elections unsuccessfully from Sangrur on a BJP ticket. Narinder Kaur Bharaj, among the first-time AAP MLAs, was elected from Sangrur in 2022. Khanna contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Sangrur as a BJP candidate and finished fourth. AAP candidate Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, who was Barnala MLA, was elected in that election.With Khanna joining the SAD, Badal said, "The storm which will throw out Delhi parties from Punjab has started today." Khanna described his re-joining as a "homecoming" and the "demand of the people who wanted that regional party Shiromani Akali Dal should get strengthened".Taking a jibe at Congress and AAP, Khanna said only the regional party Akali Dal can take up the issues of Punjab's interest with the Prime Minister, as "SAD is not in the politics to please anyone – neither [Arvind] Kejriwal nor Rahul Gandhi. I am confident that PM wants the welfare of Punjab and until someone does not present the interests of Punjab properly, the same cannot be looked into." Badal also welcomed a number of other office-bearers of the BJP, including the district president. When contacted, Punjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma said, "Every individual has the right to choose their political path."