BJP expels ex-minister Chunni Lal, 12 others over anti-party activities

Shortly after the BJP released its 11-point manifesto for the Jalandhar MC polls today, it expelled 13 of its leaders for anti-party activities.

Prominent among those who have been expelled are senior BJP leader and former minister Chunni Lal Bhagat, who is the father of AAP Jalandhar West MLA and Cabinet Minister Mohinder Bhagat. The party has also expelled Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) leader Arjun Trehan, who has been publicly criticising the BJP, blaming its senior leadership ever since he was denied a ticket for the MC polls.

This is the BJP’s second list of expulsions ahead of the polls. A few days ago, the party had expelled six leaders, several of whom later bagged the AAP ticket to contest the elections. With 13 more expelled, the number of leaders shown the door has reached 19.

The decision was taken by party’s Punjab affairs incharge Vijay Rupani and co-incharge Narinder Raina among other leaders after a meeting of the party’s core committee.

Apart from Bhagat and Trehan, other leaders who have been expelled are Anupam Sharma, Sukhdev Sonu, Hatinder Talwar, Hasan Soni, Dinesh Dua, Subhash Dhal, Ajay Chopra, Pradeep Vasudeva, Gurvinder Singh Lamba, Balwinder Kumar and Inderpal Bhagat.

The expulsion of 92-year-old Chunni Lal Bhagat comes months after speculations of his ouster from the party first began doing the rounds in the run up to the Jalandhar West bypoll. Senior Bhagat’s big posters, along with his son Mohinder Bhagat, had dotted the constituency ahead of the bypoll and he had also sought votes for Mohinder. After winning the bypoll in July this year, Mohinder Bhagat was soon inducted as a Cabinet Minister in the AAP government.

Jalandhar West is among the pivotal city constituencies where parties seek to mark a strong presence in the upcoming polls.

The Bhagat family had served the BJP in the Jalandhar West constituency for decades. Jalandhar South (as Jalandhar West was earlier called) was won by Chunni Lal in 1997 and 2007 and Jalandhar West in 2012. Chunni Lal served as the Local Bodies Minister in the SAD-BJP government and held various other posts in the party. When in the BJP, Mohinder had unsuccessfully contested the Jalandhar West elections in 2017 and 2022.

Meanwhile, BJYM leader advocate Arjun Trehan had been active in the BJP for the past several years. Trehan had objected to the allocation of BJP ticket to farm leader Prof Kanwar Sartaj from ward No. 18 and had been targeting the party leadership for choosing a candidate who had indulged in ‘anti-party activities’.

Trehan had since then been posting former videos of Sartaj and memes targeting BJP leaders on his social media account. He had also written to party state president Sunil Jakhar on being denied the ticket. Resigning from the membership of the party, he had alleged in his letter, that a person who had attacked him and tore the party’s posters was being chosen for the MC ticket.