NEW DELHI: Suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Devendra Sherawat joined the saffron camp on Monday. He was suspended a year back for alleged anti-party activities.
Shortly after Sherawat joined the BJP, Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal took a swipe at the saffron party, saying, “Modi is using all the money from the Rafale deal to buy opposition MLAs.”
Sherawat’s saffron switch comes less than a week after another sitting AAP MLA, Anil Bajpai, joined the BJP citing “disrespect” by the chief minister.
One of the founding members of the AAP, Sherawat had distanced himself from the party in the recent past. The Bijwasan MLA was ushered into the saffron fold in the presence of Union Minister Vijay Goel and the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijendra Gupta. He said he was unhappy with the party’s stance on issues related to national security.
“AAP is a sinking ship. I joined AAP only for Janlokpal and raising my voice against corruption. However, Kejriwal, who once used to talk about the welfare of farmers, has now become their biggest enemy. He raised our army and the air force by casting aspersions on the surgical strike and Balakot air strikes. As a retired soldier, it made me feel sad,” Sherawat said.
Sherawat raised the banner of rebellion after Kejriwal decided to sack fellow founding members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan at a meeting of the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC).
The meeting had taken a violent turn, with Bhushan and Yadav alleging that they were beaten up. Sherawat said this was the reason why he stopped pursuing any development work in the area and remained detached from the party.