NEW DELHI: Former AAP minister Kapil Mishra and AAP women’s wing chief Richa Pandey joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday.
BJP national vice president Shyam Jaju and Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari inducted the duo at an event which was attended by former Union minister Vijay Goel and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijender Gupta.
Terming the occasion an emotional moment for him, Mishra accused the AAP of taking a U-turn from its principles and anti-corruption stand of the ‘India Against Corruption’ movement, from which it was born.
“I was feeling helpless for the past few years due to the murder of the anti-corruption movement, lies and manipulations of the party. Joining the BJP, I feel like a man who has finally reached the shore,” Mishra said.
Incidentally, his mother Annapurna Mishra is a BJP leader as well as a former east Delhi mayor She was also present at the event.
“I welcome Mishra and Pandey into BJP, and hope they will serve Delhi by following the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the philosophy of Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Syama Prasad Mookerjee,” said Tiwari.
Earlier this month, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel had disqualified Mishra under the anti-defection law after he campaigned for the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections in May.
Mishra, elected from Karawal Nagart, has challenged his disqualification in Delhi High Court.
Speculation over Mishra joining the BJP were making rounds since he started criticising AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal after being removed as a minister in May 2017.
Subsequently, he was often seen with several Delhi BJP leaders and shared the stage with them at public events.Taking a dig at Kejriwal, Mishra said the AAP chief was seen with Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal, and NCP boss Sharad Pawar against whom AAP volunteers once faced police lathis during protests.
The former minister said he would work to end the ‘negativity’ in Delhi by helping the BJP win the Assembly elections.
Pandey, who also was an AAP spokesperson, said the AAP had been formed in search of ‘alternative politics’. “But I realised the alternative politics I was seeking was not there at the Rouse Avenue (AAP headquarters).
It is here in the BJP,” she said. “Aam Aadmi Party has become a ‘khas’ (special) party of ‘khas’ people,” she claimed.
LOOSE CANNON
Mishra had termed PM Narendra Modi as an “ISI agent” after the Pathankot terror attack.
Mishra had claimed former CM Sheila Dikshit was involved in a D400-cr water tanker scam.
The rebel MLA had asked Kejriwal to quit for AAP’s donation scam or “he will drag him by the collar and take him to Tihar”
He had put up banners on flyovers calling Kejriwal “corrupt” and urging the people to join his stir against the AAP chief.
Had mocked Kejriwal on his birthday and released ‘AK Teri Kursi Gol’, a musical video that attacked the CM over alleged corruption.