Former Indian Ambassador to US Taranjit Sandhu joins BJP, to contest Amritsar Lok Sabha seat

New Delhi: Former Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Tuesday joined the growing list of former bureaucrats, diplomats and cops opting for politics.

Flanked by saffron top brass, Sandhu, 61, joined the BJP at its national headquarters here, and said he had been encouraged by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to choose a new path for national service.

Sandhu will be BJP’s Lok Sabha poll candidate from the Amritsar segment.

Dwelling on his 35 years of government service, capped by a highly successful last stint as the Indian Ambassador to the US, Sandhu said during the last four years, India’s ties with the US had “transformed from the level of a relationship to a partnership with American investments in India at an all-time high across diverse sectors such as health, semiconductors, energy and IT”.

“Development is the need of the hour. The development being unleashed in other states of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should reach Amritsar also,” said Sandhu, who has been campaigning in Amritsar since early February immediately after retirement from the Indian Foreign Service.

BJP national general secretaries Tarun Chugh and Vinod Tawde, who inducted Sandhu today, said he had a legacy advantage in the holy city.

The Golden Temple complex in Amritsar houses a hall dedicated to the memory of Sandhu’s grandfather Teja Singh Samundri, one of the founders of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, and the only non-Guru to command the honour.

Taranjit Sandhu’s father Bishan Singh Samundri was principal, Khalsa College Amritsar, and later founder Vice Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University. His mother completed her PhD from the US far back in 1956 but returned to Amritsar and taught at Government College for Women. “Amritsar has always had great educational potential. Most of the early directors of PGI Chandigarh were the products of Government Medical College, Amritsar,” he said, gearing up for the electoral battle ahead.