Delhi: AAP leaders Balbir Singh, Sukhbir Dalal join BJP
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party leader Balbir Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday in the presence of Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva and party's Delhi general secretary Ashish Sood and union minister Harsh Malhotra.
AAP leader Sukhbir Dalal also joined the BJP today, criticizing his former leaders for not doing the work properly.
AAP leader Singh, a six-time member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, said that he was annoyed with the Delhi government "deliberately not appointing Punjabi language teachers."
"As far as election is concerned, the people who have been with me for so long, by my side, I thank them all. Talking about joining this party, I saw that Delhi LG Saxena had given orders to hire more Punjabi teachers, but deliberately teachers are not getting appointed in government schools, which has affected multiple sikh students too," Singh said.
He further praised Union Minister Malhotra for always being available and answering calls. "Whenever I called him, if he did not pick up then, he would call back a little later and ask me about what work is to be done."
Sukhbir Dalal said that he wanted to make a sports university, and despite the act being passed for it, he claimed that construction has still not started for it.
"I had wanted to make a sports university, the act was passed with real difficulty, but it has been five years, and not even a road has been laid there. He (Kejriwal) lied to the people that he had given a budget of 21 hundred crore, I got upset with him."
"If this person can lie to everyone like this... then I made up my mind that I cannot stay in this party," he added.
He explained that he does not care about getting a ticket for being a candidate in the upcoming Delhi assembly elections, and claiming that he was simply fed up with AAP, especially the 'Sheesh Mahal'.
"People will say that I changed parties because I did not get a ticket, but my ticket was cut five years ago...ever since Sheesh Mahal (residence of Delhi CM) was made, all limits were crossed, before we could visit the place, but after 2020 the entry for us has been closed"
He further praised BJP's Sachdeva for helping him with doing public service in Delhi, despite being from different parties.
The Delhi Assembly elections are expected to be held in February 2025, when the Assembly's term is set to expire too. AAP has released their full list of candidates, with prominent leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi on the list. BJP is expected to release their list soon too.
Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will contest from New Delhi, CM Atishi from Kalkaji, Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj from Greater Kailash and Minister Gopal Rai from Babarpur.
Satyendra Kumar Jain will contest from Shakur Basti, Durgesh Pathak from Rajinder Nagar, Raghuvinder Shokeen from Nangloi Jat, Som Dutt from Sadar Bazar, Imran Hussain from Ballimaran, Jarnail Singh from Tilak Nagar.
