‘No social justice in AAP’: City MLA and party’s Dalit face joins Cong | Delhi News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Rajendra Pal Gautam, former Delhi social welfare minister and sitting MLA from the reserved constituency of Seemapuri, resigned from Aam Aadmi Party on Friday and joined Congress. He was inducted into Congress at the AICC headquarters in the presence of general secretary KC Venugopal, the party’s Delhi chief Devender Yadav and media publicity department head Pawan Khera.
Gautam’s resignation has come at a time when assembly polls in the capital are less than six months away.Gautam was considered a prominent Dalit face in the party.
After joining Congress, Gautam posted his photos with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi. “I joined the @INCIndia party influenced by the ideology of Shri @kharge Saheb and Shri @RahulGandhi ji, who raised the voice for caste census, for equality, freedom, fraternity and justice,” Gautam posted on X.
In a letter to Delhi CM and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Gautam said the party was appearing to be “weak and helpless” before BJP in raising issues like caste census, increasing the reservation limit above 50%, ensuring population-based participation of “Bahujan Samaj”, and defending secularism. “It’s impossible to imagine works of social justice and social equality within AAP,” Gautam claimed in his three-page resignation letter.
The former Delhi minister further claimed that as a true soldier of Babasaheb Ambedkar, social justice was his first and last motto of life, but he would not be able to achieve it by remaining in AAP. He alleged that AAP was not giving any special representation to SC, ST, OBC and minorities. “The party supports upper-caste MLAs or ministers when they face any allegations, but immediately abandons Muslim or Dalit even if the allegations are false. It, in a way, internally blacklists the Muslim and Dalit and changes its behaviour, which is painful,” Gautam, who also belongs to the Dalit community.”
Gautam, however, added that he had nothing against any functionary of AAP and appreciated Kejriwal govt for its efforts to improve schools and the education system in the capital. In his letter, addressed to Kejriwal and his “companions” in AAP, Gautam also listed various measures he took to improve the lives of the people belonging to backward and minority communities.
Gautam had joined AAP in Nov 2014 and went on to become a minister in Kejriwal govt. He had resigned from the council of ministers in Oct 2022 after his presence at a conversion ceremony to Buddhism snowballed into a controversy ahead of the municipal elections in the capital. He had been lying low since then.
Gautam is the second Dalit MLA and minister to resign from AAP. Gautam’s successor in the Delhi council of ministers, Raaj Kumar Anand, also resigned from govt and the party in April this year. Anand had alleged that the party, which was born out of a movement against corruption, had got stuck in the quicksand of corruption. Anand first joined BSP and contested the parliamentary election on its ticket and lost, and later joined BJP.
While inducting Gautam into Congress, Venugopal said it was a proud moment for the party. “The Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra have given a new narrative to the country, and now the country is also accepting it with full might. Attracted by the Congress programmes under the leadership of Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, he has decided to join the party,” he added.