Three Punjab AAP MLAs Leave Party and Join BJP

Three Punjab legislators raised BJP flags at the party’s Delhi headquarters on Monday, completing a switch that had been in the works for days. Sanour MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra and Samana MLA Chetan Singh Jouramajra joined the BJP in front of senior leaders, including Punjab BJP president Kewal Dhillon. Amritsar North MLA Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh also joined the BJP in front of senior leaders, including Punjab BJP president Kewal Dhillon. ^1,3

The move followed separate breaks with AAP. Pathanmajra and Jouramajra resigned from the party after it announced its first 40 candidates for the 2027 Punjab election; neither man made the list. AAP had suspended both over claims of activity against the party. Kunwar Vijay Partap, a former police officer suspended in 2025, resigned from the Punjab Assembly on Monday before joining the BJP. He said Punjab needed clean politics and cited drugs, extortion, gang activity and corruption as problems. ^2,3

The three exits put pressure on AAP as it prepares to defend its hold on Punjab, where it came to power in 2022. The candidate list appears to have sharpened existing tensions: the two departing MLAs had criticized the government over drugs, jobs, farming support and law and order. Their claims are accusations, not findings. AAP has also said it will ask the Assembly Speaker to remove Pathanmajra and Jouramajra from their seats. Party leaders accused the BJP of taking in politicians rejected by other parties. ^7,14

That request puts the Speaker at the centre of the next step for the two sitting MLAs. The party says it will seek to cancel their Assembly membership, but the decision rests with the official responsible under the law. Kunwar Vijay Partap has already announced his resignation as a legislator. The political fight is moving from party defections to a formal question about who keeps their seats. ^2,4