Sunil Jakhar offers to quit as Punjab BJP president ahead of panchayat polls: Reports

Sunil Jakhar, a former Congress leader, was appointed as the BJP's Punjab chief in July 2022. (File photo: PTI)

In a potential setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party, senior party leader Sunil Jakhar has offered to resign as the president of the party’s Punjab unit, multiple media reports have suggested. However, there is no official confirmation on the development. Jakhar has maintained silence on the issue. His bio on X still reads: ‘State President @BJP4Punjab’.

Sources in the BJP indicate that Jakhar has offered to resign from the post. However, his personal assistant Sanjeev Trika denied any such development and said that Jakhar has simply been busy and less active recently, reports The Indian Express.

The buzz around Jakhar’s resignation comes just ahead of the panchayat elections due to be held in the state on October 15. Jakhar has also not been attending any of the party’s meetings, including the one to finalise the party’s strategy for the upcoming polls.

He made his last public appearance in Chandigarh at a BJP state meeting on September 3 to mark the start of the party’s membership drive.

Sources in the BJP leadership, however, confirmed that Jakhar has expressed his unwillingness to work as state party president, saying that he is unable to work freely in the state.

Jakhar had previously served as the president of the state unit of the Congress before resigning in May 2022. He joined the BJP the same month and was appointed as the BJP’s Punjab president on July 4, 2022.

Jakhar’s offer of resignation may also have stemmed from the resistance within the BJP to the influx of leaders from the Congress in the state. These Congress leaders, including Jakhar, have been handed key posts in the BJP, an issue that has left several factions of the party’s state unit livid.

Meanwhile, Anil Sarin, BJP’s state general secretary, dismissed the resignation reports as baseless. He said that Jakhar did not attend Thursday’s key meeting as it wasn’t mandatory for him to do so. Sarin also denied reports of differences between Jakhar and other members of the party.