Ex-Punjab CM Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur joins BJP, may contest from Patiala

Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur on Thursday joined the BJP in Delhi. Preneet served as a Congress MP for over two decades. In February last year, she was suspended from the grand old party for anti-party activities. "I will work for my constituency, my state, and the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi," she said after joining the BJP. 

Preneet is likely to contest from Patiala, a seat she held from 1999 to 2014 and then from 2019 till now. When asked whether she will contest from Patiala, she said: "That depends on the BJP." She said she had a good innings with the Congress and hoped she would have a better innings with the BJP. 

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Balbir Singh from Patiala. 

In the last parliamentary elections, the BJP had won two seats - Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur - in Punjab. Preneet Kaur's entry may boost the saffron party's chance to wrest one more seat in Punjab. The Congress had won 8 seats, Akali Dal 2 and 1 seat had gone to the AAP in 2019. 

In 2019, Preneet Kaur had won the Patiala seat by over 1.6 lakh votes. She had defeated Akali Dal's Surjit Singh Rakhra who had got 3,69,309 votes with 31.35 per cent votes. Kaur garnered 532,027 votes (45.17%).