India
Kirti Azad had an axe to grind; the press conference by AAP leaders about the affairs of the DDCA, which earned them defamation suits from Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, was scripted by the son of former chief minister of Bihar and Congress MP Bhagwat Jha Azad
New Delhi: Ostracised from BJP for levelling allegations against his own party members in relation to the Rafale deal, Kirti Azad formally joined the Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi, the AICC President.
Later, he took to twitter and expressed his joy:
आज सुबह कांग्रेस के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री जी ने मुझे कांग्रेस की सदस्यता ग्रहण कराई मैंने मिथिला की परंपरा में उनको मखाना की माला, पाग, चादर से सम्मानित किया।
Today in front of Shri Rahul Gandhi I joined the Congress I felicitated him in traditional Mithila style pic.twitter.com/B9DQwCM207
This morning, Congress National President Rahul Gandhi granted me his party's membership. I felicitated him in traditional Mithila style.
The joining formalities were supposed to take place on Friday itself, but owing to the Pulwama attack, it had to be procrastinated in honour of the slain martyrs.
It’s a sort of Gharwapsi (homecoming) for Kirti Azad as his father too was a Congressman.
"I have come back home. My father was made an MP at the age of 26 by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952," he said.
A three-time parliamentarian from Darbhanga, Bihar, Kirti had been in the BJP for well over 2 decades. But his public derision of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the Rafale deal had earned him the wrath of BJP honchos and ultimately shown the door.
That he has won three times from Darbhanga, there are talks that he years to contest from the same constituency, but much to his chagrin, sources say the Congress is keen to field him from New Delhi.
A little glance on his cricketing career: Kirti Azad had represented India from 1980 to 1986, both in tests and ODIs. The most phenomenal moment of his life was when he became a member of the squad that lifted the World Cup 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev.
A successful cricketer, Kirti Azad followed his father's vocation of politics when he joined the BJP and won the Lok Sabha election from Darbhanga. He successfully contested from Delhi's Gole Market constituency later. He is serving his third term as an MP in the current Lok Sabha.
Ironically, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had played a role in bringing Azad to the BJP fold while the latter 'returned the favour' by accusing the former of wrongdoings in the administration of the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA).
The press conference by AAP leaders about the affairs of the DDCA, which earned them defamation suits from Jaitley, was scripted by the son of former chief minister of Bihar and Congress MP Bhagwat Jha Azad (by Kirti's own admission). Since then, Azad's position in the BJP has been untenable, given his irreconcilable differences with the virtual No. 2 in the Narendra Modi government.
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