Kailash Gahlot joins BJP, a day after quitting AAP

Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Minister Kailash Gahlot on Monday (November 18, 2024) joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), at its headquarters, in the presence of Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP Delhi unit president Virendra Sachdeva.

Mr. Khattar described Kailash Gahlot’s joining as a “turning point” in the politics of the national capital.

Mr. Gahlot announced his resignation from the Delhi Cabinet and the AAP through a letter on Sunday (November 17, 2024.) Shortly after, he resigned from the AAP stating differences in political journeys.

In his letter to AAP’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, Mr. Gahlot said that political ambitions had overtaken AAP’s commitment towards the people, leaving many promises unfulfilled. “Instead of fighting for people’s rights, we have increasingly only been fighting for our own political agenda. This has severely crippled our ability to even deliver basic services to the people of Delhi,” he wrote. 

Referring to the constant tussle between the Centre and the AAP government in Delhi, Mr. Gahlot said that it was now obvious that real progress for Delhi could not happen if the Delhi government were to spend most of its time fighting with the Centre.

Mr. Gahlot, MLA from Najafgarh won his first election in 2015 and had more than 16 years of experience as an advocate in the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court. Mr. Gahlot was in charge of the portfolios of Transport, Home, Administrative Reforms, IT, Women and Child Development. He has previously held the Finance and Revenue portfolios too.

Mr. Gahlot is the third prominent face of the AAP who has quit the party this year, the other two being former Ministers and Dalit leaders Rajendra Pal Gautam and Raaj Kumar Anand. While Mr. Gautam joined the Congress in September, Mr. Anand had quit the party ahead of the Lok Sabha election and later joined the BJP.

As Kailash Gahlot walks out of party, BJP, Cong. fire fresh salvo at AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party has maintained that Mr. Gahlot was forced to quit the party as he was “continuously being harassed” through raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The BJP had levelled several irregularities against Mr. Gahlot including DTC low-floor buses purchase scam. He had even filed a defamation suit against the then BJP MLA Vijender Gupta.

Published - November 18, 2024 01:02 pm IST