Aap setback : Just a day after Congress MP Ravneet Bittu switched to the saffron party, another blow has hit the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab. Its sole Lok Sabha MP, Sushil Kumar Rinku, has defected. On Wednesday, Jalandhar East MLA Sheetal Angural also joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
National General Secretary of the BJP, Vinod Tawde, welcomed Rinku in the presence of Punjab BJP chief Sunil
Kumar Jakhar and Union Minister Hardeep Singhpuri 
Rinku was AAP’s only Lok Sabha MP and was suspended for indiscipline during the monsoon session of the House in 2023. He had previously been elected thrice as a Congress municipal councilor and once as an MLA from Jalandhar (West), filling the vacant Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat in a by-election in 2023 after the demise of former Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Rinku stated that he felt sidelined within AAP on the development front. “We couldn’t fulfill the promises made during the by-election because my government didn’t support me. The working style of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi influenced me. Whatever work I took to the Centre related to Jalandhar was approved, and the Adampur airport became operational,” he said.
Vande Bharat train denied a stop in jalandhar . We need railway overbridges in Jalandhar and Adampur. I see a glimmer of hope and am trying something new. I have no personal agenda, but I have aspirations for the residents of Jalandhar,” Rinku added.