Chandigarh, April 27 (IANS): The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab got a major boost ahead of the parliamentary elections on Saturday as BJP’s Other Backward Class wing secretary Kuldeep Singh Shanty and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Scheduled Caste wing general secretary Gurdarshan Lal joined it.

Both the leaders were formally inducted into the party by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. On the occasion, AAP’s MP candidate for Jalandhar, Pawan Kumar Tinu and senior AAP leader Rajwinder Kaur Thiara were present.

Both belong to the Doaba region. AAP also got a boost in the Majha region. The influential youth leader Rahul Sharma, who is Punjab Vice President of the National Student Union of India (NSUI), a student wing of the Congress, also joined AAP.

Sharma is a leader of the Gurdaspur constituency and has a good hold among the youth. He was also inducted into the party by the Chief Minister.

In a statement, Chief Minister Mann said that impressed by the work of the AAP government in the past two years, people from every section are continuously joining the party and are contributing to making Punjab ‘rangla’ again.

He said the party would create history by winning Lok Sabha elections in Punjab by 13-0.