Three rebel AAP MLAs join BJP in Punjab; Kunwar Vijay Pratap quits Assembly

Three rebel Aam Aadmi Party legislators from Punjab joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, handing the ruling party a fresh blow a few months before the 2027 Assembly election.

Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, the former IPS officer who represents Amritsar North, was joined at the BJP’s headquarters in New Delhi by Chetan Singh Jouramajra of Samana and Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra of Sanour, both in Patiala district. Kunwar Vijay Pratap said he had resigned his Assembly seat and sent the letter to Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan.

“Today, my five-year internship in AAP came to an end, and I am formally joining the BJP,” he said.

Rebels long before the switch

None of the three left on good terms. AAP had suspended Kunwar Vijay Pratap on 29 June 2025. Jouramajra and Pathanmajra were suspended for alleged anti-party activities and quit the party on Sunday. AAP has said it will petition the Speaker to disqualify Jouramajra and Pathanmajra from the Assembly.

The defections come two days after AAP released its first list of 40 candidates, which has Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann contesting from Dhuri and Speaker Sandhwan from Kotkapura. AAP swept Punjab in 2022, winning 92 of the 117 seats.

‘AAP has pushed Punjab into a quagmire’

The three turned on their old party at the event. “In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party is finished; Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann themselves have brought about its end,” Kunwar Vijay Pratap said. Pathanmajra said “AAP has pushed Punjab into a quagmire”, accusing it of abandoning its original vision and worsening the state’s finances and drug problem. Jouramajra pointed to drugs, gangs and street crime.

Jouramajra also predicted that more would follow, even among AAP legislators already named as candidates: “we expect that some of them might actually relinquish those tickets and join the BJP.”

In a post addressed to the people of Amritsar, Kunwar Vijay Pratap described Punjab as “trapped by drugs, extortion, gangsterism and corruption” and said: “My sole purpose is ‘Punjab First.’”

BJP claims an undercurrent

Satish Poonia, the BJP’s national general secretary in charge of Punjab, claimed “an undercurrent in favour of the BJP” and anti-incumbency against the AAP government. He said chitta, the adulterated heroin sold on Punjab’s streets, had harmed the state’s youth under AAP rule, and recalled that Home Minister Amit Shah had promised drug abuse in Punjab would be eradicated by 31 December 2029.

Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon, speaking in Punjabi, said the party’s ranks were growing by the day. “Time has come for the AAP to go,” he said.