Former BJP leader Kirti Azad to join Congress tomorrow

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 15

Former BJP leader Kirti Azad will join the Congress formally on Saturdayafter he announced his decision to become a part of the grand old party.

Darbhanga MP Azad is a former cricketer and the son of former Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad.

The Congress has also been in talks with Shatrughan Sinha, the other rebel BJP member from Patna, who is still weighing his options.

Azad fell out with the BJP soon after the Narendra Modi government assumed office in 2014.

He first tweeted on Friday that he would join the Congress in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi but later said he would join on Saturday instead of Friday as a mark of respect to the jawans slain in the Pulwama terror attack.

Gandhi addressed the press on Friday saying there would be no more conversations around any issue other than the issue of terrorism.

The Congress, however, announced the holding of its working committee meeting on Thursday night after the Pulwama attack.

A statement from party general secretary organisation KC Venugopal said the CWC meeting would take place on February 26.

On Thursday, former Congressman Avtar Bhadana who had joined the BJP also rejoined the Congress in the presence of AICC general secretary Priyanka Vadra in Lucknow.

On Saturday morning, Kirti Azad announced his move to join the Congress but later declared a postponement of the event till Saturday as the Congress didn’t want to hold political events while the country mourned the loss of jawans.