Raaj Kumar Anand joins BSP, to contest New Delhi seat

Former Delhi social welfare minister Raaj Kumar Anand, who resigned from the Delhi cabinet and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) a month ago, joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday, terming his stint with the AAP a “bad dream”

Former Delhi social welfare minister Raaj Kumar Anand, who resigned from the Delhi cabinet and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) a month ago, joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday, terming his stint with the AAP a “bad dream”. He is likely to contest the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency on the party’s ticket.

Anand joined the BSP in a ceremony at the party’s office on Hardhyan Singh Road in Karol Bagh. (HT)

Joining the BSP in a ceremony at the party’s office on Hardhyan Singh Road in Karol Bagh, Anand said: “I offer my tributes to Dr BR Ambedkar and today, I feel like I have joined my own party. From 1985 to 1990, Kanshi Ram and Behanji (Mayawati) were active here and Kanshiram would teach us. I was associated with Bamsef (backward and minority communities employees federation). In 2013, Arvind Kejriwal said that the country will change if politics changes...we went with our supporters to the Aam Aadmi Party. It was like a bad dream to join them. We did not see politics change, but politician (Arvind Kejriwal) certainly changed.”

Anand, who was the social welfare minister of Delhi, resigned suddenly from the cabinet on April 10, saying that a “party that was formed to fundamentally fight corruption is now embroiled in corruption itself”. AAP later argued that Anand was under the ED scanner, but he refuted the claims, saying he did not quit out of fear or pressure.

BSP Delhi president Laxman Singh said that Anand would file his nomination on the party ticket from New Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency. Before Anand joined, BSP was planning to nominate Satya Prakash Gautam from the seat. ”We are happy that Raaj Kumar Anand has come back to the BSP. We will file the nomination at New Delhi Jam Nagar house at 11am on Monday,” he said.

BSP made its poll debut in 1989 by fielding five candidates in Delhi, but party candidates could secure only around 3.7% of the vote share. BSP founder Kanshi Ram, contesting from East Delhi parliamentary constituency, got 11.2% of the votes. BSP got 14% of the votes in 2008 Delhi assembly elections and won two seats. Its performance has been going down, as evidenced by the 1.2% vote share in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and 1% in the 2019 iteration.