Poonam Azad quits AAP, joins Congress

New Delhi: Five months after joining the AAP, Poonam Jha Azad, wife of suspended BJP MP Kirti Jha Azad, switched over to the Congress on Tuesday. Ms Azad, who took on former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit from Gole Market in the 2003 Assembly polls, termed her joining the Congress as “homecoming.”

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken, addressing a press conference accompanied by Ms Jha, announced that she has joined the party.

“My father-in-law Bhagwat Jha Azad was former Congress chief minister (of Bihar). The Congress is like home to me, it’s like mother to me,” she said. In November last year, she had quit the BJP and joined AAP.

On speculations that her husband Kirti Jha Azad may follow suit, she said: “Only the time will tell, anything can happen, just wait.”

In December 2015, the cricketer-turned-politician was suspended by the BJP for “anti-party activities” after he complained of corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) at a time when the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley headed the body.

Welcoming her to the party, Delhi Mr Maken said, “ “She has come with her friends from AAP. We have given her a new responsibility in Congress.”

“We want to assure her that we will keep on raising the issue of Poorvanchal and Mithilanchal,” he said.  

Ms Jha had served as BJP’s spokesperson for long and was also the Vice President of the Delhi unit of the party.

Two other AAP leaders, including Rajiv Mishra and Sarita Kambojia, also joined the Congress on the occasion.