Who is Iqbal Singh Lalpura, ex-cop who arrested Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and newest member of BJP's top body?

The BJP on Wednesday brought in a major shake-up dropped Union Minister and former party president Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from its parliamentary board and inducted in six new members, including former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa and Punjab leader Iqbal Singh Lalpura. Party sources said the exercise shows how the party “rewards” old workers and values their experience. Yediyurappa, Jatia and Laxman have given their lives to the party, building it brick by brick from the start, they said. “There is also an emphasis on diversity. Sonowal is from the Northeast, Laxman and Yediyurappa hail from the South. In Lalpura, there is a Sikh representing minorities,” a leader said. He described Sudha Yadav as a self-made political leader whose husband was martyred in Kargil. While the names of bigwigs who were left out stand out, a lot of the focus in on Lalpura, the first Sikh in the BJP’s apex organisational body. Let’s take a closer look at Lalpura: A former IPS officer, Lalpura is currently the chairman of the National Commission for Minorities.

Lalpura, a BJP spokesperson who hails from Punjab and belongs to the Sikh community, assumed the post in April.

He resigned as the chairperson of the commission earlier this year after being fielded by the BJP from Punjab’s Rupnagar constituency in the Assembly polls, but subsequently lost. As per NDTV, Lalpura in 1981 was one of three officers who arrested militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, in a case related to a clash between some Sikhs and Nirankari sect members. Bhindranwale was a militant leader and leading figure of the Khalistan movement who was killed in Operation Blue Star in 1984. Bhindranwale had agreed to the arrest on the condition that only baptised Sikhs would take him. Lalpura was one of two cops on the team, the other being Jarnail Singh Chahal, besides a sub-divisional magistrate, BS Bhullar. Lalpura held key posts in the border districts of Amritsar during the militancy period in Punjab right up to 1990s, as per NDTV. As per News9, Lalpura was SSP Amritsar, SSP Tarantaran, and Additional inspector general CID Amritsar during his career. He won several awards such as the president’s police medal, police medal for meritorious services, Shiromani Sikh Sahitkar Award and Sikh scholar award. In 2012, he retired and joined the BJP. He has authored several books on Sikh philosophy and history including Japji Sahib ek vichaar’, Gurbaani ek vichaar’, and ‘Raj Karega Khalsa’. During the  farmers protests, Lalpura visited various parts of Punjab and faced protests in Sangrur and Barnala, as per News9. BJP rejigs CEC The party also rejigged its Central Election Committee (CEC) and named Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Bhupender Yadav among its new members. Gadkari and Chouhan ceased to be CEC members after their ouster from the board. All parliamentary board members, which include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and BJP president J P Nadda, automatically become part of the CEC, which has some additional members as well. [caption id=“attachment_11074591” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  The BJP inducted six members into its parliamentary body. PTI[/caption] The omission of Gadkari and Chouhan marks their diminishing stock within the party which has tried to make its key organisational bodies more socially and regionally representative by bringing in members of different communities, including the first Sikh in Lalpura, currently the chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, in the board. Former Union ministers –Jual Oram Shahnawaz Hussain– and former BJP ‘Mahila Morcha’ chief Vijaya Rahatkar have been dropped from the CEC. After these changes, the board now has the full strength of 11 members while the CEC has 15 leaders. The other new board members are K Laxman, Sudha Sadav and Satyanarayan Jatiya while the new entrants to the CEC are Rajasthan leader Om Mathur and BJP women wing chief Vanathi Srinivasan besides Fadnavis and Bhupender Yadav. This is the first time the board has been rejigged under Nadda, who took over as the party president in 2020. The board had several vacancies caused by the death of Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj while Venkaiah Naidu and Thaawarchand Gehlot had to leave it after becoming Vice President and state governor respectively. When Shah was the party president, veteran leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were eased out of the crucial party body in 2014 and made members of ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, as the party on Modi’s watch worked to make the organisation and government more youthful. Among the new board members, Sudha Yadav and Laxman are from the Other Backward Classes while former Union minister Jatia is from the Scheduled Castes. Sonowal is tribal. Yediyurappa’s inclusion highlights the party’s efforts to reward the Lingayat leader whose community is critical to its poll prospects in the Karnataka assembly election slated for the next year. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.