Actor Sonu Sood’s sister Malvika Sood joined the Congress party on Monday. She will contest the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections.

Punjab will vote in a single phase on February 14. The votes will be counted on March 10.

Malvika Sood joined the party in Moga district with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Congress’ Punjab unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu in attendance.

“It is very rare that a party chief and the chief minister both have gone to someone’s home to grant the honour, and she deserves it,” Sidhu said, according to India Today.

Sidhu said Malvika Sood’s joining will prove to be a “game-changer” for the party ahead of the state elections. “She is a young and educated woman, and her education as software engineer will help her in her life ahead,” he added.

In November, Sonu Sood had said that his sister will contest the Assembly elections from their hometown Moga but did not mention anything about the party. On Monday, the actor said he supports his sister, according to NDTV.

Sood has been widely praised for organising special flights and buses for migrant workers stranded in cities due to the countrywide coronavirus-induced lockdown in 2020. He also arranged oxygen for Covid-19 patients during the devastating second wave of the pandemic in April and May last year.

In April, the Punjab government had made him the brand ambassador of its Covid-19 vaccination programme. He resigned from the post on Friday.