Former Chief Parliamentary Secretary and former MlA Jagdish Raj Sawhney, who had joined Congress before the 2012 State Assembly polls, returned to BJP on Thursday.
Three-time BJP legislator from Batala, Sawhney had resigned from the primary membership of the party on January 12, 2012, after being denied ticket for the Assembly elections and later joined the Congress “unconditionally”. He was in touch with the State party leadership since a long time, and the formal announcement was made on Thursday. Sawhney, along with his supporters, re-joined the saffron party at the party’s headquarters in Chandigarh.
Sawhney’s revolt was among the first within the BJP after he was denied a ticket despite being a sitting MlA, that for three consecutive terms. Moreover, he was unhappy with the party’s move to swap Batala seat with its alliance partner SAD in lieu of ludhiana (West). While he faced many ups and owns during his 20-year-long stay in the BJP, Sawhney spearheaded the campaign of demanding district-status Batala.
He also hit the headlines for his tiff with senior BJP leader and the then Cabinet Minister laxmi Kanta Chawla. The two involved into a ‘blame-game’ with following Chawla conducted raids at ultrasound centres of Sawney’s kin. Things reached such a pass that the then BJP national president Nitin Gadkari had to intervene who reportedly asked the leaders “not to wash their dirty linen in public”.