In a significant development, former social welfare minister in the AAP government Raaj Kumar Anand among five former AAP leaders including his wife Veena, joined the BJP here on Wednesday.

Coming as it does barely a year away from the Delhi Assembly elections the development is being seen as a big morale booster to the BJP in Delhi.

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Anand joined the BSP after resigning from the AAP in April to contest the Lok Sabha polls held in May.

The former BSP leader, along with his wife, a former AAP MLA, joined the saffron party at the BJP headquarters here in the presence of Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva and BJP National General Secretary Arun Singh.

The three other AAP leaders who joined the BJP along with the couple are MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar, AAP councillor Umed Singh Phogat, and another AAP leader, Ratnesh Gupta.

Addressing the media after joining the BJP, the former AAP minister expressed gratitude to the saffron party for giving him an opportunity to serve it. “I am committed to working for the welfare of all, particularly the Dalit community, to which I belong,” he declared.

Hitting out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Anand accused the AAP chief of “cheating and deceiving” the Dalits. He said “no substantial work was done for the Dalit community” during his tenure as a minister in the Kejriwal Government.

“Whenever issues related to the interests of the Dalits were taken up with the chief minister, he summarily dismissed them as he was not interested in working for the community,” he said.

Raaj Kumar Anand alleged a scam in the Dalit Welfare Fund that prompted him to resign from the ministerial post. “I had requested Mr. Kejriwal to work for the Dalit welfare, but he consistently declined to do so, which led to my resignation from the ministerial post. Crores of rupees allocated to the Dalit welfare from the SC/ST Fund remained unutilised in Delhi over the past nine years,” he said

The former AAP minister lamented that Kejriwal did not nominate a single Dalit to the Rajya Sabha even though the party formed governments in Delhi and Punjab with the support of the Dalits.

He further said that the Dalits are questioning about their welfare funds. “The Dalit community is asking where their welfare funds have gone. Mr. Kejriwal ignored the Dalit community even in the Teerth Yatra Yojana,” he said.

Reiterating his commitment to work for the uplift of Dalits and ensure the protection of their rights, he expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP National President JP Nadda,

Anand called it a “matter of pride” for him to join the world’s largest party and pledged to work towards “connecting PM Modi’s vision directly with the people of Delhi.”

Speaking on the occasion, Chhatarpur MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar accused Kejriwal of “dictatorship” and claimed that those who came to power promising to fight corruption were now engaged in corrupt practices themselves.

“They have turned Delhi into hell and broken the trust of the people of the national capital,” he claimed, accusing Kejriwal of “cheating and deceiving the people of Delhi”.

The Chhatarpur MLA pledged to work with the BJP with “full dedication”.

Anand resigned from the AAP In April alleging corruption in the party. after being elected to the Delhi Assembly in 2020 from the Patel Nagar assembly constituency, he held multiple portfolios in the Kejriwal Cabinet, including Social Welfare, SC and ST, Gurudwara elections, and Registrar of Cooperative Societies.