Senior BJP leader from Amritsar Raj Kumar Verka quits party to join Congress

Chandigarh: In a setback to the BJP in Punjab, the party's senior leader Raj Kumar Verka on Friday said he has decided to quit the party and was going to join the Congress terming it as "ghar wapsi".

Verka had switched over from the Congress to the BJP in June last year.

During the past over a year, Verka was among many Congress leaders who had switched over to the BJP including present state BJP chief Sunil Jakhar.

Jakhar took over as Punjab BJP chief in July.

“I have decided that I am leaving BJP. I am resigning from the party and going to Delhi now and will join the Congress," Verka told reporters in Amritsar.

Replying to a question, he said, it was a "ghar wapsi".

When asked what were the reasons for the step, Verka, a prominent Dalit leader from Amritsar, said there would have been some reasons for the “betrayal” “Kuch toh majbooriyan rahi hongi, yu hi toh koi bewafa nahi hota,” he said.

Verka said, “The entire nation is seeing that the country can be secure in the hands of the Congress party and if any party can take all along all sections, all religions, it is Congress.” When asked if he met Rahul Gandhi during his recent Amritsar visit, he said, “I don't want to say anything on this, but I will say I had a word with the (Congress) high command.”

Verka, a prominent Dalit leader from the Majha region, is also a three-time legislator and was the minister for social justice and empowerment and minorities in the previous government.

Verka had served as the vice-chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for two terms.