NEW DELHI: Former Lok Sabha member and prominent OBC leader Haribhau Rathod is all set to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is now eyeing expansion in various states.
Rathod, who was the Lok Sabha member of the BJP from Yavatmal in Maharashtra, told PTI that he would join the AAP on Sunday in the presence of the party's National Convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
A prominent leader of the Banjara community, Rathod was once a confidant of BJP leader late Gopinath Munde and a Lok Sabha member from 2004-08.
He was expelled from the BJP after he abstained from the trust vote sought by the then UPA government in 2008 over the nuclear deal with the US.
Rathod joined the Congress in 2013 and was made a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council the next year.
In 2019, Rathod aligned with the Shiv Sena and campaigned for the party candidates in the assembly elections.
After winning Punjab assembly elections, Kejriwal is looking at expanding his party in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat and eyeing a national role in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Political pundits believe Rathod's work for the OBC communities in Maharashtra and other parts of the country could come handy for the AAP as it seeks to spread its wings.