New Delhi, Oct. 3 -- Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar, former Uttar Pradesh minister and eight-time MLA Shyam Sunder Sharma, and senior journalist Rajat Rakesh Tandon joined the Congress on Saturday at the AICC headquarters.
They were inducted in the presence of AICC general secretary Naseer Hussain, CWC member Rajeev Shukla, Media and Publicity chairman Pawan Khera and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Devender Yadav.
Explaining her exit, Kakkar said AAP had promised its leaders would not take bungalows or cars, but choppers were later used for private travel. "I could no longer defend the indefensible," she said, adding that the party had failed to retain people of substance. She called Rahul Gandhi the only "authentic" and "resilient" leader in Indian politics and alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was stealing votes in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tandon, who covered the Congress as a journalist for nearly two decades and belongs to the family of freedom fighter Purushottam Das Tandon, said he sought no post. Over the past ten years, he said, Rahul Gandhi was the one leader who "stood firm and could not be managed".
Sharma, who won the TMC's lone Uttar Pradesh seat in 2012, assured the party of results in the state and said he would bring Mathura's district panchayat members into the Congress.
On recent leadership changes in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, Shukla said the decisions were strategic and in the party's interest, noting that former CLP leader Aradhana Mishra had been appointed state Congress chief.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.