In a move likely to embarrass the Congress, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's stepbrother, Daljeet Singh Kohli, on Friday joined the BJP in the presence of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Kohli, a businessman based here, joined the BJP when Modi came to address a rally in Amritsar.At the rally Kohli shared the dais with Modi and other senior BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders."Today, PM Manmohan Singh's brother Daljeet Singh has joined the BJP. This will further strengthen us. We are not a membership party. We form blood relations," Modi said while welcoming Kohli into the BJP fold.
Kohli was also welcomed into the BJP by Jaitley and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.The BJP and the Akali Dal are ruling partners in Punjab, as well as the constituents of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.Kohli had remained apolitical even after his elder brother Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister in 2004 and got a second term in 2009.Manmohan Singh had studied in Amritsar after his father's family migrated here from western Punjab in Pakistan following the partition in August 1947.