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‘Can’t deny’: Kirti Azad on quitting Congress, joining TMC
Azad joined the Congress in February 2019 in the presence of then party president Rahul Gandhi and lost the Darbhanga Lok Sabha seat to the BJP candidate in the general elections held a few months later
Congress leader Kirti Azad said on Tuesday he “can’t deny” reports that he was soon joining the Trinamool Congress.“Sources have come out and said this, so I cannot deny them,” Azad told HT when asked to confirm or deny speculations of him quitting the Congress to join the political outfit led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Azad refused to answer any further questions.
A person aware of the developments, however, said that Azad was likely to join the TMC on Tuesday in the presence of Mamata Banerjee, who is on a four-day visit to Delhi. Apart from Azad, Ashok Tanwar, who quit the Congress in October 2019 and launched his own party, and former Janata Dal (United) general secretary Pavan Varma were also likely to join the TMC, a news agency said.
Son of former Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, Kirti Azad began his political career with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was elected thrice to Lok Sabha from his birthplace of Darbhanga in Bihar. However, Azad’s stint in the BJP ended in 2015 with suspension for “anti-party” activities following his attack on the then finance minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), which was then headed by the minister.
Also Read: Former Haryana Congress MP Ashok Tanwar expected to join TMC
After a four-year hiatus, Azad joined the Congress in February 2019 in the presence of then party president Rahul Gandhi and lost the Darbhanga Lok Sabha seat to the BJP candidate Gopal Jee Thakur in the general elections held a few months later.
Prior to joining politics, Kirti Azad was a cricketer who was a member of India’s 1983 World Cup winning squad, led by Kapil Dev.
