Pentecostal churches launch political party

Jalandhar, April 3

Having already rolled out Pentecostal Christian Parbandhak Committee on the pattern of the SGPC, a section of the Punjabi Christian community on Monday launched its own political outfit – United Punjab Party.

An announcement in this regard was made at the Open Door Church of Pastor Harpreet Deol in Khojewal village near here this afternoon. Since the church has a massive following from among the Dalit community of Jalandhar, the idea behind floating a new party at this juncture is being seen as an attempt to tap this votebank in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll. This is for the first time that the proliferating Pentecostal churches in the region or the Christian deras as they are called have formally expressed their desire to directly participate in the political activities of Punjab.

It was in the same church that the Income Tax Fepartment had conducted a raid about two months ago.