Chandigarh: Former Punjab Assembly Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal joins BJP on Friday. He was inducted into the BJP by party president JP Nadda in Delhi.
Atwal had resigned from the primary membership of the Akali Dal on April 19 last month. Charanjit Atwal’s son Inder Iqbal Singh is contesting the Jalandhar by-election on a BJP ticket. Last Sunday, he was formally inducted into the BJP in Delhi. After this, now the former Speaker has also joined the BJP after leaving the Akali Dal.
It is being said that he was disgruntled with Badal family and due to this, he joined the BJP. The Atwal family has been with the Shiromani Akali Dal since Independence. In the 74-year political career of Parkash Singh Badal, this entire family was very close to him.
Charanjit Atwal was born on March 15, 1937. He was the Deputy Speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha of India from 2004 to 2009. At the same time, he was also the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly twice. He represented Phillaur constituency of Punjab in the Lok Sabha and was a member of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
In 2019, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Jalandhar parliamentary seat against Congress’ Santokh Singh Chaudhary but lost to Chaudhary by 19,491 votes despite securing 3,66,221 votes.