AAP leaders Kapil Mishra, Richa Pandey join BJP

New Delhi: In a major blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the forthcoming Delhi Assembly election, its chief of women’s wing in the national capital, Richa Pandey, joined BJP, on Saturday, along with party’s disqualified MLA Kapil Mishra.

Ms Pandey and Mr Mishra joined BJP at its city unit headquarters in the presence of BJP national vice-president Shyam Jaju, Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari, former Union minister Vijay Goel, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijender Gupta, and former Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay.

Former East Delhi mayor and senior BJP leader Annapurna Mishra, who is the mother of Kapil Mishra, was also present on the occasion.

Speculations were doing rounds about Mr Mishra joining BJP since he started criticising AAP supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal after being removed as a minister in May 2017. He grew close to many Delhi BJP leaders and often shared stage with them.

Terming the occasion an emotional moment for him, Mr Mishra accused 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 in addition to the lies and manipulations of the party that I was in,” said Mr Mishra after joining BJP.

Welcoming Mr Mishra and Ms Pandey into BJP, Mr Tiwari said, “I hope they will serve Delhi by following the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the philosophies of Deendayal Upadhyaya and Syama Prasad Mookerjee.”

Mr Jaju, who is the in-charge of Delhi BJP, said Mr Mishra had expressed his desire to join the party when Mr Kejriwal sought evidence of the surgical strikes.

Taking a dig at the chief minister, Mr Mishra said the AAP chief was seen with Congress leaders like P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, and NCP’s Sharad Pawar, against whom party volunteers once faced police lathis while protesting.

Mr Mishra claimed that he would work to end “negativity” in Delhi by helping BJP win the Assembly polls due next year.

Ms Pandey, who headed the AAP women’s wing in the national capital and was a spokesperson, said AAP was born out of search for alternative politics. “I realised the alternative politics I was seeking was not there at the Rouse Avenue (AAP headquarters), but it is here in BJP. Aam Aadmi Party has become a ‘khas’ (special) party of ‘khas’ people,” she said.

Ms Pandey further said that she had spoken against BJP and its leaders as an AAP leader, adding that now she feels like a “wayward person who has managed to come back home.”