Chandigarh: Former Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar on Thursday, October 29, announced that he intends to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court or the Supreme Court to seek a ban on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia entering Punjab, news agency ANI reported. Jakhar described the matter as a constitutional issue.
Source: ANI via LatestLY
"I intend to take the matter to the High Court — or even the Supreme Court, as this is a constitutional issue — to seek a ban on the entry of both Kejriwal ji and Sisodia ji into Punjab," Jakhar said at the press conference, according to ANI. No petition had been filed at the time of the reports; Jakhar said he was exploring legal options.
What Jakhar linked the move to
Speaking to IANS, Jakhar linked the proposed court move to Sisodia's use of the phrase 'saam, daam, dand, bhed' — persuasion, inducement, punishment and division — while addressing party workers in 2025, which Jakhar alleged was inflammatory and could promote hatred in the state, IANS reported via Hi India. That characterisation is Jakhar's allegation; Sisodia and AAP have not been reported responding to the ban announcement.
Source: IANS via Hi India
At the same press conference, Jakhar said he had received a call shortly beforehand about the alleged drug-related death of a 16-year-old boy in Jalalabad in Fazilka district, and claimed the boy's father had also died of drug-related causes, ANI and The North News reported. The death and its cause are Jakhar's claims at the press conference and have not been independently verified; the boy is not being named.
Source: The North News
BJP MP Tarun Chugh, at the same interaction, alleged that Punjab's law-and-order situation had collapsed and called the state India's 'crime capital', citing what he said were grenade attacks on 23 police stations — all allegations by Chugh, attributed here to ANI's report. AAP had not issued a formal response to Chugh's allegations at the time of reporting, according to Nation Press.
The ban announcement came on the same day Jakhar disclosed his letter to the Governor seeking early enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct in Punjab — a demand SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal backed separately. Read: Jakhar writes to Governor, Sukhbir backs early poll code demand
What happens next
Punjab's assembly elections are due in February 2027, and Kejriwal and Sisodia are AAP's top national leaders in the only state where the party is in power, under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Whether Jakhar actually files a petition — and what any court would make of a request to bar two opposition-party leaders from entering a state — remains to be seen. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if a petition is filed or AAP responds.