Miffed With Congress Stand On Balakot Air Strikes, Tom Vadakkan Joins BJP

BJP is using the adage Congress Mukt Bharat but the party is certainly not shy of accepting Congress leaders into its fold in a flash . The latest to join the saffron bandwagon just ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls  is Congress leader from Kerala Tom Vadakkan.

It may be recalled that BJP had earlier  inducted two Samajwadi party leaders Gaurav Bhatia and Naresh Agrawal.  Bhatia is spokesperson of the party Followed by senior Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh Rita Bahuguna Joshi .

Once a key aide of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and attacked his former party for its stand on Balakot air strikes.

Vadakkan, who joined the saffron party in the presence of Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and later met its president Amit Shah, said, “I am deeply hurt and that is why I am here.”

Asserting that the Congress questioned the integrity of armed forces, he said, “The attack by Pakistan on our land and the reaction from my party was sad indeed.”

“I left the party with heavy heart. If a party is working against national interest, there is no other option but to leave it,” he told reporters.

In an apparent attack on party chief Rahul Gandhi’s leadership of the Congress, he said he gave the party two years of his life but it has now resorted to a practise of “use and throw”.

Dynastic politics has reached its zenith in the Congress, he said, adding that he believed in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development narrative.