Chandigarh: Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon on Sunday announced two key committees for the 2027 assembly elections — a 13-member panel to prepare the party’s manifesto and a 14-member committee to document the alleged failures of the AAP-led govt.The manifesto committee will be headed by former Punjab BJP president Avinash Rai Khanna. More than half its members are leaders who joined the BJP from other parties, including Rajya Sabha MPs who switched from AAP this April.The four sitting Rajya Sabha members on the panel are Raghav Chadha, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta and Satnam Singh Sandhu. Chadha is a chartered accountant-turned-politician and political strategist, Harbhajan a cricketer-turned-politician, Gupta an industrialist and Sandhu an educationist-turned-politician.The committee also includes former AAP MLA and veteran lawyer H S Phoolka, who joined the BJP in April this year; former Congress minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, who joined the party in 2021; and former Congress minister Ashwani Sekhri, who joined in 2023.Other members are BJP national vice-president and former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal; party veterans Manoranjan Kalia and Som Prakash; sitting BJP MLA and former state president Ashwani Sharma; and Parampal Kaur, the party’s state cell joint coordinator and a former IAS officer who joined the BJP in 2024.Dhillon also announced a 14-member ‘chargesheet committee’, which will prepare a document highlighting alleged failures, unfulfilled promises, corruption allegations and governance shortcomings of the AAP govt, according to a Punjab BJP functionary.Former Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar will head the panel. A former Punjab Congress chief, three-time Congress MLA and former MP, Jakhar joined the BJP in May 2022.The committee includes Rajya Sabha MPs Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Ashok Mittal, who joined the BJP after quitting the AAP in April this year. Other members are former Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, former Union minister Preneet Kaur, former Congress MP Jagmeet Singh Brar and former AAP MP Sushil Rinku.The remaining members are BJP state vice-president Geja Ram Valmiki; former Union minister and former National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman Vijay Sampla; former National Commission for Minorities chairman Iqbal Singh Lalpura; former Punjab Vidhan Sabha deputy speaker Dinesh Babbu; former state BJP president Shwait Malik; and party chief spokesperson S S Channi.Dera Beas head visits DhillonRadha Soami Satsang Beas head Gurinder Singh Dhillon visited the Chandigarh residence of Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon on Sunday. In a post on X, the BJP leader said he felt blessed to receive the spiritual leader’s visit and blessings.Ends
