Sunil Jakhar

Sunil Jakhar is a Punjab politician, the youngest son of the Congress leader Balram Jakhar. He led the Punjab Congress, left it in May 2022 and joined the BJP, and headed the BJP's Punjab unit from July 2023 until he was replaced in May 2026. This profile covers his public career as reported; where he or others give an opinion, it is labelled.

Key moments

• Born 9 February 1954 at Panjkosi in the Fazilka area of Punjab, to a Hindu Jat family. He was elected MLA from Abohar in 2002, 2007 and 2012 and became Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in March 2012 (Wikipedia).
• 2017: he became president of the Punjab Congress and won the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election in December of that year. He lost the seat to Sunny Deol in 2019 (Wikipedia). ThePrint says he led the Punjab Congress for four years until July 2021.
• September 2021: after Amarinder Singh resigned as chief minister, ThePrint reported that Jakhar emerged as a dark horse for the post and would have been Punjab's first Hindu chief minister since the 1966 reorganisation. It says Navjot Sidhu's objection blocked him, that some senior Congress leaders, including Ambika Soni, reportedly felt only a Sikh should be chief minister, and that he declined the offer of deputy chief minister.
• 14 and 19 May 2022: he leaves the Congress and joins the BJP in Delhi. He said the Congress was trying to divide Punjab on lines of caste, community and religion, and that his family had been with the party for about 50 years. The BJP president, J P Nadda, said Jakhar had built an identity independent of the Congress (The Tribune).
• 4 July 2023: he is named president of the BJP in Punjab (Wikipedia). Wikipedia lists reports in September and November 2024 that he had offered to resign, which the party at first called baseless.
• 28 May 2026: the BJP names Kewal Singh Dhillon to replace him. The Tribune links the change to the party's effort to deepen its Sikh outreach before the 2027 Assembly elections and gives no reason for Jakhar's removal.

Remembered for: being the only Punjab politician to have led the state units of both the Congress and the BJP (Wikipedia), and for belonging to a family ThePrint described as a dynasty that "doesn't come up in everyday conversation" in Punjab, a phrase it attributes to a Panjab University political scientist. We have not researched or reported his statements on 1984, beadbi or other Panthic questions, and none are attributed to him here.