8 AAP defectors join BJP in Delhi days ahead of polls
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Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi: A day after the eight Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs in Delhi quit Arvind Kejriwal’s party, all of them joined the BJP on Saturday. This happens when assembly elections are scheduled in the national capital, PTI reported.
All the eight MLAs resigned from the primary membership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday, citing reasons like alleged corruption and the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's deviation from its ideology.
All eight legislators were denied poll tickets by the AAP this time.
The MLAs who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are Vandana Gaur (Palam), Rohit Mehraulia (Trilokpuri), Girish Soni (Madipur), Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Uttam Nagar), B S Joon (Bijwasan), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli) and Pawan Sharma (Adarsh Nagar).
After resigning from the AAP, they said they had also sent their resignation letters to the Assembly speaker, relinquishing their membership of the House.
Former AAP MLA Vijender Garg and several other leaders of the Kejriwal-led party joined the saffron outfit in the presence of Baijayant Panda, its national vice president and the in-charge of the Delhi BJP, and state president Virendra Sachdeva.
Welcoming the MLAs and leaders to the BJP, Panda said it is a "historic" day as they have gotten rid of "AAPda" (disaster) and hoped that after the February 5 polls, Delhi too will be freed from it.
The 70-member Delhi Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on February 5, with the results set to be declared on February 8.