Delhi municipal elections: Congress councillor who defeated Sambit Patra joins BJP
In yet another setback for Congress in Delhi just before the municipal elections, a sitting councillor from Kashmere Gate ward Harsh Sharma, party’s west Delhi leader Shiv Kumar Sondhi, and other district-level officer bearers joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday.
In yet another setback for Congress in Delhi just before the municipal elections, a sitting councillor from Kashmere Gate ward Harsh Sharma, party’s west Delhi leader Shiv Kumar Sondhi, and other district-level officer bearers joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday.
Sharma had defeated Sambit Patra, BJP spokesperson in the 2012 municipal election. Harsh’s wife Uma Sharma served as the councillor from the same ward in the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi from 2007-12.
Sondhi severed his long association with Congress on Friday and obtained BJP’s membership in the presence of state unit president Manoj Tiwari.
Sondhi unsuccessfully contested assembly elections from the Janakpuri seat twice — 1998 and 2003 — against BJP’s Jagdish Mukhi, who is now the governor of Andaman and Nicobar Island.
Apart from these two leaders, two more Congress district-level workers, an AAP leader from Badarpur, and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) joined the BJP.
Speaking on the occasion, Tiwari said their joining proves that disenchantment is growing among the Congress and AAP workers. “Delhi chief Arvind Kejriwal has gone into a shell and Delhi Congress Ajay Maken is speaking aloud after their humiliating defeat in Rajouri Garden bypoll. It shows that Kejriwal is a Hitler who takes credit only for success while the Congress leader is happy to bask in the false glory despite knowing the fact that even the people living in his neighbourhood don’t support him,” he said commenting on the party’s victory in Rajouri Garden bypoll.
Earlier on Friday, the minority wing of Delhi BJP campaigned outside 60 mosques across the city following afternoon prayers for local candidates. At some locations, women workers of the community also took part in canvassing.
Atif Rashid, president, minority wing of the party said our workers and leaders told people about the ‘misdeeds’ of the Congress and the AAP. “We told them how Congress and AAP are indulged in corruption and their policies are completely anti-people. We appealed to them to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi without any fear,” he said.