'Right man in the right party': Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunil Jakhar joining BJP

Taking to Twitter, Amarinder Singh wrote: "The right man in the right party. @sunilkjakhar, thank you for joining @BJP4India. Honest and genuine leaders like him can no longer breathe in the @INCIndia."

Amarinder Singh, the former Congress chief minister of Punjab, praised Sunil Jakhar, who commanded the party's state unit during his time, for defecting to the BJP.  Taking to Twitter, he wrote: "The right man in the right party. @sunilkjakhar, thank you for joining @BJP4India. Honest and genuine leaders like him can no longer breathe in the @INCIndia."

Singh, who left the Congress and created his own party last year following a year of public feuding with a faction led by Navjot Sidhu, tweeted in support of Jakhar's move. He had established an alliance with the BJP ahead of the just ended state elections.

Sunil Jakhar became an outspoken opponent of the Congress after Charanjit Singh Channi was picked to succeed Amarinder Singh in the top job, for which he was a candidate. He had also lost the state party chairmanship to Navjot Sidhu.

Jakhar resigned from the Congress on May 14 after the party leadership handed him a showcause notice for his criticism of Channi. The disciplinary committee of the party recommended that he be suspended for two years and removed from all positions.

Addressing the media, Jakhar said, "I had a 50-year association with Congress; my family had been members of the party for three generations, beginning in 1972. "I considered it family," he stated, saying that he left Congress because to "basic concerns," not personal disagreements with the gathering. The Congress has an aspect of casteism, but the BJP believes in equality for all, he remarked.