New Delhi: With the Delhi Assembly elections looming closer, Congress leader and former MLA Ram Singh Netaji, along with four others, joined the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday.
These leaders joined AAP in the presence of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, and party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.
The others who joined AAP are Vinay Kumar Mishra, the son of senior Congress leader Mahabal Mishra; councillor and social worker Jai Bhagwan Upkar from Rohini ward of Bawana Assembly; Naveen Dipu Chaudhary, a social activist in the Gandhinagar area who has been associated with Congress for long; and Rajkumari Dhillon, who was a member of the Delhi Pradesh Mahila Congress.
Election to the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held on February 8 and the results will be declared on February 11.
The decision by these leaders to join AAP is seen as a blow to Congress and it has come just a few days after five-time Congress MLA from Matia Mahal Shoaib Iqbal decided to join AAP.
There has already been a steady trickle from Congress to AAP over the past year. Last year, four-term Congress MLA Prahlad Singh Sawhney had joined AAP.
Mr Kejriwal said that the decision of the five leaders to join AAP was influenced by the policies of his party and the work of his government in Delhi.
“We hope that in the coming days more and more people show support to our party, which only believes in honest work,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said.
