Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Kirti Azad’s wife Poonam quits AAP, joins Congress

- HT Correspond­ent htreporter­s@hindustant­imes.com

months after she joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), wife of suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad Jha, Poonam, switched to the Congress party.

Besides her, AAP leaders Rajeev Mishra and Savita also joined the Congress in the presence of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken on Tuesday.

Maken said, “She has come with her friends from AAP. And we have given her a new responsibi­lity in Congress. We want to assure her that we will keep on raising the issue of Purvanchal and Mithilanch­al. We hope she will become their voice here.”

After serving as BJP’s spokespers­on and vice-president of the Delhi unit of the party, Jha had quit the BJP and joined AAP in November. Her husband was suspended from the BJP in 2015 on charges of breaching the party discipline after he had targeted finance minister Arun Jaitley on the Delhi District Cricket Associatio­n issue.

As part of the party’s ‘Dilli Ki Baat, Dil Ke Saath’ programme, Congress’ top leaders like Jairam Ramesh, Shri Shashi Taroor and Salman Khurshid will join the morning walkers in city parks to talk about the party’s plans for the improvemen­t of the MCDs, like making the corporatio­ns financiall­y self-reliant by raising their own resources, solid waste management, primary education and health.

Maken said a control room in the DPCC office will co-ordinate the election campaigns of the senior leaders. “We will talk about different issues like the problems of street vendors, education, environmen­t, health and other issues affecting the people,” he said.

Former Union minister Taroor will visit the Jahanpanah city forest on Wednesday, while Ramesh will visit a park near Bhalaswa landfill on Thursday and a park near Gazipur landfill on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Delhi Pradesh South Indian Congress condemned BJP leader Tarun Vijay’s remarks against the South Indian community and passed a resolution against him. Vijay had said last week that Indians cannot be called racist because they live with ‘black people’ from the southern states.

 ?? HT ?? Poonam Azad Jha (second from left) joins Congress in the presence of DPCC president Ajay Maken (second from right) on Tuesday.
HT Poonam Azad Jha (second from left) joins Congress in the presence of DPCC president Ajay Maken (second from right) on Tuesday.

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