AAP MLA, prominent Dalit politician Rajendra Pal Gautam joins Congress : Valley Vision

Rajendra Pal Gautam, a prominent Dalit leader and former Delhi minister, left the Aam Aadmi Party and joined the Indian National Congress on Friday.

Joining the Congress at a formal event at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in the presence of Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal and Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav, Gautam said Rahul Gandhi’s ideology had pushed him to join the party.

AAP tends to “stay quiet” on issues of “social equality, social justice, bhagidari and hissedari (share in power and resources),” said the two-time Seemapuri MLA.

“To accelerate the struggle for social justice and participation and involvement of Bahujan Samaj in all fields, I am resigning from all the posts and membership of the Aam Aadmi Party. Jai Bheem!” Gautam posted on X along with this resignation letter addressed to AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“For the 2024 elections, the Aam Aadmi Party joined the INDIA bloc to defeat the BJP but, while other parties part of the INDIA bloc began talking about a caste census, increasing the limit of reservation beyond 50% and asking for more representation of the Bahujan Samaj in line with its population, and countering the BJP’s communal politics with secularism as well as demanding social justice, our party seemed weak and helpless in the face of the BJP in this respect…” Gautam wrote in his resignation letter.

“So now after freeing myself from the Aam Aadmi Party, I will be able to openly join the struggle for the rights of the marginalised Bahujan Samaj …,” he added.