A message is being shared on social media with a claim that three BJP MLAs from Punjab have quit the party and joined the Congress.
A Facebook user shared the message in Hindi which read, “बड़ी खबर पंजाब में भाजपा के तीन विधायक कांग्रेस में शामिल पंजाब सम्पूर्ण रूप से भाजपा मुक्त हो गया.”
(Translation: All three MLAs from BJP in Punjab have now joined Congress. Punjab is now BJP free)
Here’s the link to the above post. Check similar posts here, here and here.
We found the same message on Twitter as well.
Here’s the link to the above post. Check similar posts here, here and here.
Fact Check
NewsMobile fact-checked the post and found it to be false.
Firstly, we looked for related news reports but couldn’t find any credible media report about the BJP MLAs switching over to the Congress party in the state.
We then checked Punjab Assembly website and found that there are only two BJP MLAs and not three as claimed in the viral post.
We also checked the 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections result on Elections.in and found that there were three BJP candidates who won the elections – Som Praksh from Phagwara, Dinesh Singh from Sujanpur and Arun Narang from Abohar.
However, Som Prakash resigned from his post and contested for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Hoshiarpur. Subsequently, by-elections were held on the Phagwara seat on October 21, 2019, wherein Congress candidate Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal defeated BJP nominee Rajesh Bagha. As a result of which, BJP’s total representation in the Punjab Assembly reduced to 2 MLAs out of the total of 117 MLAs.
Hence, from the above information, it is clear that the viral claim of BJP MLAs quitting the party in Punjab is false.
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