Chandigarh:  In a big jolt to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), its senior leader Sikandar Singh Maluka’s daughter-in-law and former bureaucrat Parampal Sidhu on Thursday joined the BJP in Delhi.

Sources said she is likely to be fielded against Akali leader and former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Last week the 2011 batch officer of the Punjab cadre took voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). There is speculation that she may get the ticket to contest from the Bathinda parliamentary seat, currently represented by SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal.

Maluka’s son Gurpreet Singh also joined the saffron party in the presence of the party’s general secretary Vinod Tawde, Union Minister Hardeep Puri and other leaders.

Senior Akali leader Maluka was the education minister of the Akali government till 2017.