Kailash Gahlot set to join BJP on Monday

New Delhi: Former Delhi minister and AAP leader Kailash Gahlot is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday, sources confirmed the development to NewsDrum.in.

Earlier on Sunday, NewsDrum reported that speculations were rife about Gahlot joining the saffron party. 

In a jolt to AAP ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls, Gahlot quit the party on Sunday, alleging "political ambitions" have overtaken its commitment towards people.

"Instead of fighting for people's rights we have increasingly only been fighting for our own political agenda," the 50-year-old said in his resignation letter to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal.

Gahlot, a prominent figure in the party, also took a jab at Kejriwal as he flagged some "awkward" and "embarrassing" controversies like 'sheeshmahal', saying it makes everyone doubt if "we still believe in being the 'Aam Aadmi'".

The BJP had dubbed Kejriwal's former official residence at 6 Flagstaff Road as 'sheeshmahal', alleging that he spent crores on luxury items and modern facilities.

While the term ‘Sheeshmahal’ is used by AAP’s opponent BJP, inaction over rising pollution in Yamuna has been one of the prominent poll planks of the saffron party.

AAP leaders said Gahlot was facing ED probe and had no option but to join the BJP.

"Kailash Gahlot has been raided by the ED, Income Tax many times. He was part of the government for five years, and the BJP was continuously conspiring against him, he was left with no other option but to go with the BJP.... He is now repeating what the BJP says. It is the BJP's conspiracy," AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.

Gahlot enjoyed a cordial relationship with bureaucracy and Lt Governor V K Saxena. He was nominated by the LG to hoist the national flag on the occasion of Independence Day in the absence of Kejriwal, who was lodged in Tihar at that time.

Kejriwal had recommended Atishi's name for hoisting the tricolour but Saxena picked Gahlot, since he held the portfolio of Home.

The 50-year-old MLA comes from a rural background and was a prominent Jat leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who twice won from the Najafgarh constituency in 2015 and 2020.

He won by a slender margin of 1,555 votes in 2015 but went on to consolidate it in 2020 as he boosted the victory margin to 6,231 votes and holds the distinction of winning from the seat twice in a row.

In 2017, he was inducted in the cabinet after the resignation of Kapil Mishra.

Gahlot, who completed his Bachelors and Master's degrees in Law from Delhi University, held crucial portfolios of Transport, Women and Child Development, Home and IT.

He is credited with introducing the Electric Vehicle Policy in Delhi and many other initiatives, including the introduction of free travel for women in buses and faceless services.

The Najafgarh MLA is seen as someone who stays away from political blame game and mudslinging, and focusses on his work.

Earlier this year in July, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar and its former MLA Raj Kumar Anand joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Anand, who hails from Dalit community, was a minister in the city government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and quit the party over the issue of corruption after the AAP's convener was arrested in the excise case.