Three former Congress leaders get key BJP titles in new shuffle

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday appointed former Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill its national spokesperson.

It also appointed former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and Sunil Jakhar as well as its former Uttar Pradesh president Swatantra Dev Singh as members of its national executive, the party said in a statement.

Madan Kaushik, Vishnu Deo Sai, its former presidents of Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh respectively, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Manoranjan Kalia and Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia, all three from Punjab, have been made special invitees to the national executive, the party said.

Shergill, who is a lawyer by profession and was one of the prominent ones among young Congress leaders, on August 24, tendered his resignation claiming that the vision of the decision-makers no longer was in sync with the aspirations of the youth.

Former Punjab Congress chief Jakhar too parted ways with the Congress in May this year.

Singh quit the Congress after he was unceremoniously removed as Punjab chief minister last year. The former chief minister, who joined politics in 1969, floated his own political outfit Punjab Lok Congress after quitting the Congress. He merged his outfit with the BJP after he joined the party.