Former AAP minister Kailash Gahlot joins BJP

A day after he resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party former Delhi minister and ex- AAP leader  Kailash Gahlot joined the BJP on Monday in New Delhi. After joing the saffron party, he clarified that he didn't quit Delhi's ruling party because of pressure from the Enforcement Directorate and CBI. "Some people must be thinking that this decision was taken overnight and under someone's pressure. I want to tell them that I have never done anything under anyone's pressure to date...I am hearing that an attempt is being made to build a narrative that it was done under the pressure of the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation... all this is wrong," he added.
"The purpose for which we had come together is no longer visible today. If a government continuously engages in conflict with the central government on every issue, then the development of Delhi cannot take place," Gahlot said. "I firmly believe that Delhi's development can only happen in collaboration with the central government. This is why I have joined the BJP. I will continue to work inspired by the vision and policies of the Prime Minister," he added.
Gahlot is the third member of the Kejriwal cabinet to have quit the party and the ministerial portfolio. In April, Raaj Kumar Anand, the minister in charge of social welfare and labour and employment, quit the party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Anand replaced Rajendra Pal Gautam who had resigned from the party and the cabinet in November 2022.