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Chandigarh/Kharar: Hours after prominent realtor and politician Ranjit Singh Gill joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) officials on Saturday morning conducted simultaneous raids on his Sector 2 residence in Chandigarh and Gillco Valley office in Kharar.
There was a heavy police presence outside the Gillco Valley office, with VB personnel also stationed at his Chandigarh residence. Gill could not be reached for comment, but his close aides confirmed the raids, calling them “a political vendetta.”
Gill, a former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and a two-time Assembly poll candidate from Kharar, had joined the BJP on Friday night at Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s official residence.
According to BJP insiders, Gill was allegedly under pressure to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a claim that party leaders said precipitated his “sudden switch” to the BJP. “That is why he joined the BJP abruptly. And by morning, the Vigilance Bureau was at his door,” said one BJP leader present at the induction.
Local BJP leaders described Gill as a strong contender for the Krar Assembly seat in the next elections. He had earlier contested the 2017 and 2022 polls from Kharar but lost in 2022 to AAP’s Anmol Gagan Maan by a wide margin. Gill, a close confidant of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, had recently left the party, citing dissatisfaction over local office-bearer appointments. He formally severed ties with the SAD on July 12.
