Hours after Gillco Valley realtor Ranjit Singh Gill joined the BJP, Punjab Vigilance Bureau officials raided his residence in Chandigarh and his office in Kharar on Saturday morning.
There was heavy police presence outside Gill’s Gillco Valley office in Kharar, while a Vigilance Bureau team was stationed at his residence in Sector 2, Chandigarh.
Gill remained unavailable for comment, but his close associates confirmed the raids, describing them as “a political vendetta.”
According to BJP sources, Gill was allegedly pressured to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which led to his sudden, late-night switch to the BJP on Friday.
“That is why he joined BJP abruptly. And by morning, the Vigilance Bureau was at his door,” said a BJP leader who was present during Gill’s induction into the party at Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s official residence in Chandigarh.
Local BJP leaders said Gill, a former Shiromani Akali Dal leader, is a strong contender for the party ticket from the Kharar Assembly seat in the next elections.
The realtor-turned-politician had contested the 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections from the Kharar constituency but lost to AAP’s Anmol Gagan Maan by a wide margin in 2022.
A close confidant of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, Gill was reportedly upset over recent appointments of party office-bearers in his area and parted ways with the SAD on July 12.