Sunil Kumar Jakhar

Sunil Kumar Jakhar (born 9 February 1954) is an Indian politician and president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Punjab unit since 4th July 2023. Jakhar, hailing from an established political family, is noted politically for his clean image and bluntness. Elected consecutively three times from Abohar Assembly constituency (2002-2017), he was the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha from 2012 to 2015. Jakhar was a Member of Parliament from the Gurdaspur constituency from 2017 to 2019.

In his long politcal career, Jakhar has served in various offices and posts. He was a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) for five decades until 2022. Previously, Jakhar was the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee from 2017 to 2021. Following the ouster of Amarinder Singh as Chief Minister of Punjab in 2021, Jakhar was a front runner to replace him as Chief Minister; however, the INC leadership did not select him for the office. In May 2022, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that he wanted to support "nationalism, unity and brotherhood in Punjab". Jakhar is the only Punjab politician to have lead the state units of both INC and BJP. Provided by Wikipedia