Aam Aadmi Party legislator Devinder Singh Sehrawat joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, PTI reported. Sehrawat is the second AAP MLA to join the BJP after Gandhi Nagar legislator Anil Bajpai switched camps on Friday.
Sehrawat, who is an MLA from Bijwasan in Delhi, joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Vijay Goel, NDTV reported. “I am one of the founding members of AAP,” he said. “One of the executives. In the last three years, I was insulted and the needs of my constituency were neglected.”
He accused the party of “ignoring and cornering him” and claimed he was not invited to party functions. Sehrawat said he decided to switch to the BJP after being “inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for the nation and national security”, The Hindu reported.
Last week, the Aam Aadmi Party had alleged that the BJP was trying to poach seven of its MLAs by offering them Rs 10 crore each. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had claimed that the BJP was talking to more legislators.
Sehrawat was suspended from the Aam Aadmi Party’s primary membership in 2016 for anti-party activities, according to NDTV. He had written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleging that leaders in the party’s Punjab unit had “exploited women” in return for tickets to contest the Punjab Assembly elections.
“I was unceremoniously suspended from the AAP after I raised my voice against party members exploiting women in Punjab and then harassed systematically so I could not perform development work in my constituency,” Sehrawat said on Monday. “I tried to work for the development of my area even after being suspended from the party but they [AAP] tried to sabotage all my efforts.”
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