Day After Punjab Govt Withdraws Security, Harbhajan Singh Gets Central CRPF Protection

New Delhi: Day after cricketer-turned-politician Harbhajan Singh's police security was withdrawn on Saturday, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs provided Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) security to the Rajya Sabha MP. This came after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers protested outside his residence in Punjab's Jalandhar soon after he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The former cricketer was one of the six lawmakers who flipped from AAP to BJP with Raghav Chadha, after he was demoted by the Arvind Kejriwal run party.

Singh will now be protected by CRPF commandos in Delhi and Punjab. The development came a day after the Punjab Police withdrew his security cover comprising 9–10 police officers, a step seen as a political vendetta by the AAP-run state government.

On Sunday, CRPF security personnel were spotted outside his Jalandhar residence.

AAP Protest Outside Harbhajan's Residence

On Saturday, AAP workers spray-painted the word "gaddar" (traitor) on the boundary wall of Harbhajan's house, as seen outside the residences of Ashok Mittal and Rajinder Gupta, two other AAP Rajya Sabha MPs who joined the BJP along with Chadha.

Earlier on Friday, Raghav Chadha along with six other AAP parliamentarians - Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney - announced their induction into the BJP. Soon after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann labelled all of them "gaddars" (traitors). 

The AAP Exodus

The political shift within AAP came after Chadha was removed from the post of the party's Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha, a move that did not come as a surprise to many political observers, given the straining of ties between the party leadership and Chadha.

Announcing his political shift, Chadha claimed that AAP had moved away from its core principles in recent years. 

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