Across Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha seats, turncoats dominate the candidates list of both the AAP and the BJP, with both fielding seven defectors each. The Congress has given tickets to four turncoats while the SAD has fielded two. And at least 60 percent of all these defections have taken place in an election year – either in the run-up to the ongoing polls or the 2023 bypolls or the 2022 assembly polls.    

Of the 20 turncoat candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab, 11 crossed over from the Congress – to the AAP, BJP and SAD – in the last five years. 

Weeks before polls, AAP imported 3

The list includes party stalwarts such as Ravneet Singh Bittu, who once held the post of the Congress leader in Lok Sabha; former chief minister Amrinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur; Congress’s former chief whip Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi; former Congress legislative party deputy Raj Kumar Chabbewal; and former Punjab Congress chief Mohinder Kaypee, along with several MLAs. Three of these heavyweights, Bittu, Kaur and Sodhi, shifted their allegiance to the BJP, Chabbewal switched to the AAP and Kaypee to the SAD.  

The AAP imported at least three of its candidates weeks before the elections: Chabbewal and Gurpreet Singh GP from the Congress and Pawan Kumar Tinu from the Shiromani Akali Dal. 

Around the same time, two of its leaders also jumped ship – Lok Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Rinku crossed over to the BJP despite being nominated and former MP Dharamvir Gandhi, who defeated then-Congress leader Perneet Kaur in 2014, himself joined the Congress in April. The 72-year-old cardiologist from Patiala is again contesting against the Patiala “royal”, but in a Congress and BJP fight. 

Two others who joined the AAP, after quitting the Congress – Laljit Singh Bhullar in 2022 and Gurmeet Singh Khuddian in 2021 – are now cabinet ministers in the Bhagwant Mann government. 

Meanwhile, the two BJP turncoats in fray are Anil Joshi and Malvinder Singh Kang. 

Joshi was expelled from the Congress in 2021, while Kang, former BJP Yuva Morcha national executive member and in-charge of the BJP Haryana Yuva Morcha, resigned from the saffron party to protest the three farm laws that were later repealed by the Modi government in the wake of farmers’ agitation. He soon joined the AAP.

Let’s now look at the turncoats hotseats in the border state.

Jalandhar: Turncoats fielded by BJP, AAP, SAD vs Congress’s Channi   

From the reserved seat of Jalandhar, three turncoat candidates – BJP’s Sushil Kumar Rinku, AAP’s Pawan Kumar Tinu and SAD’s Mohinder Kaypee – are in fray against former CM Charanjit Singh Channi. 

Sushil Kumar Rinku, 48, began his political journey with Congress’s student wing NSUI in the 1990s. He remained with the grand old party for 33 years until his expulsion over “anti-party activities” last year. This was in the lead up to the Jalandhar bypolls, which Rinku successfully contested with an AAP ticket. 

The Dalit leader made headlines again during the monsoon session last year for protesting against the Delhi Services Bill introduced by the Modi government in August last year. Visuals from the parliament showed him tearing some papers and throwing them towards Speaker Om Birla. He was subsequently suspended for “unruly behaviour” and came to the house tied up in chains and stood before the Ambedkar statue on the premises to protest the suspension. In less than a year, he made his second switch and joined the BJP. Two X accounts of his name still feature his pictures with Rahul Gandhi.    

Pawan Kumar Tinu, 58, jumped into electoral politics in 2012 and won the Adampur assembly seat on a SAD ticket. He again won the seat in the 2017 assembly polls. The Dalit leader remained with the SAD for nearly 12 years before switching to the AAP ahead of the ongoing polls.        

Mohinder Singh Kaypee, 67, was with the Congress party for over 50 years before he quit the party in April this year over “differences”. The lawyer-politician and three-time MLA, who has also been the Punjab Congress chief, soon joined the SAD. Interestingly,  Channi and Kaypee, who are contesting with each other, are relatives.

On exiting the Congress, Kaypee said that his “family’s contributions” were not being recognised within the party and that Congress’s “disrespect for seniors forced me to join the SAD...The Akali Dal is a party of Punjab and has always fought to resolve issues pertaining to the state”.

Ludhiana: Two ex-Congressmen vs Congress state chief 

In Ludhiana, BJP’s Ravneet Singh Bittu, AAP’s Ashok Prashar Pappi, SAD’s Ranjot Singh Dhillon and Congress state president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring are in fray for the Lok Sabha seat. Among these, both Bittu, 48, and Pappi,59, are former Congress leaders. The former jumped ship to the BJP in April this year, while Pappi had joined the AAP ahead of the 2022 assembly polls.   

Bittu, the three-time MP from Ludhiana, was once known to be close to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and also served as the party’s Lok Sabha leader in 2021. The now-BJP leader is the grandson of former Congress CM Beant Singh and has been using the Congress stalwart’s pictures in the BJP’s posters for his campaign. His cousin and former minister Gurkirat Singh Kotli has continued to remain in the grand old party.         

Meanwhile, Pappi was a veteran Congress leader and also served as the former general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. In 2012, he won the assembly polls from Ludhiana South. He joined the AAP in 2016 but returned to Congress ahead of the 2017 assembly polls. On quitting the party again, he said the Congress’s senior leadership had been “ignoring workers for a long time”.