New Delhi
Former Delhi MLA Chaudhary Surendra Kumar joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday in the presence of the party’s national convener and Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Kumar was a legislator of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and was reported to have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in July this year. He said he quit the BJP over the Ravidas temple issue.
“The demolition of the Ravidas temple has hurt people of the [Dalit] community and that is one reason for me leaving the BJP, Kumar said during a felicitation programme organised on Thursday in the AAP head office in central Delhi.
“But, other than that, AAP has done tremendous amount of work in the fields of education, health, power, water and infrastructure. I am proud to be a member of their movement now,” said Kumar, who was an MLA in north-east Delhi’s Gokulpuri assembly between 2008 and 2013.
Kejriwal said, “AAP is a pro-Dalit party and this is the best place for Surendra Kumar to join at this juncture. He is a prominent leader of the community and his presence will contribute to AAP’s development movement.”
{{/usCountry}}Kejriwal said, “AAP is a pro-Dalit party and this is the best place for Surendra Kumar to join at this juncture. He is a prominent leader of the community and his presence will contribute to AAP’s development movement.”
{{/usCountry}}The BJP’s Delhi unit’s media relations head said, “It looks like he [Kumar] was one of those leaders who had joined the BJP with some personal agenda. This is a party of hard working volunteers and does not get affected by such developments.”