Sardar Harsharan Singh Balli, a senior political leader from the Sikh community in Delhi, on Sunday, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in the city.

Along with Balli, his son, a youth leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Gurmeet Singh “Rikku” Balli, joined the saffron party in the presence of state unit chief Virendra Sachdeva.

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Former Mayor Subhash Arya and former MLA Subhash Sachdeva, close friends of Harsharan Balli, were also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Virendra Sachdeva recounted the significant role played by Balli in the expansion of industrial development across the national capital as industry minister. He called Balli a prominent Sikh leader from West Delhi who commands respect as an honest public representative.

Taking a dig at Congress, Sachdeva said due to the poor policies of their government in Delhi back in the day, traders here faced the brunt of sealing drives. He recalled how the protests against sealing were led by Harsharan Balli in favour of Delhi’s traders and even went to jail several times. Hence, he is respected by the traders in the national capital to this day.

On Balli joining BJP, he said the saffron party has gained a strong leader within both the Sikh community and the industrial sector. His joining the party fold will benefit areas such as Hari Nagar, Moti Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Tilak Nagar, Janakpuri, and Vishwas Nagar constituencies, he added.

It was an emotional moment for Harsharan Singh Balli. He said he had joined the AAP with great hope inspired by Arvind Kejriwal’s words but had to leave the party in disappointment as the AAP government stalled the city’s development.