Days after former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), five more Congress leaders, including former ministers Raj Kumar Verka, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sunder Sham Arora, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, and Kewal Dhillon joined the saffron party on Saturday.

Those who defected to the BJP also include former Congress Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the state, Amrik Dhilon, former SAD MLA Sarup Chand Singla, and expelled SAD leader Mohinder Kaur Josh. They all joined the BJP in the presence of Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Som Parkash, state unit chief Ashwani Sharma, and senior party leaders Dushyant Gautam, Tarun Chugh, Sunil Jakhar, and Manjinder Singh Sirsa.

Balbir Sidhu, a three-time MLA from Mohali, was health minister in the previous Congress government, while Gurpreet Kangar, a three-time MLA from Rampura Phul, was revenue minister. Verka, a prominent Dalit leader from the Majha region, is also a three-time legislator and was minister for social justice and empowerment and minorities in the previous government.

Sunder Sham Arora, a former MLA from Hoshiarpur, was the industry and commerce minister in the previous Congress government. Balbir Sidhu’s brother Amarjit Singh Sidhu, who is the mayor of Mohali corporation, also joined the BJP.

Meanwhile, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring targeted the BJP for wooing these leaders into the party fold. “At a time when Punjab is having law and order problems, the BJP is busy poaching leaders from other parties,” he remarked.

Warring said he was grateful that the ‘elite’ who enjoyed all the privileges in the party have vacated the space for younger leadership from a common background.

Another Congress leader, Kuljit Nagra, said certain party leaders (who feared being implicated in some cases by the Central agencies) were being forced to join the BJP.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha member from Punjab, Raghav Chadha, said Punjab Congress’ trash has joined the BJP. “BJP has become a dustbin for all of Congress’s trash,” he remarked in a tweet.