After Hans Raj Hans, singer Daler Mehendi joins BJP
In what seems as yet another indication that BJP is relying on star power this election season, celebrated singer Daler Mehendi joined the saffron party on Friday. Daler was inducted into the party in the presence of BJP MPs Manoj Tiwari and Vijay Goel. Singer Hans Raj Hans, who was given a BJP ticket from Northwest Delhi, was also present at the event.
Daler had joined Congress in 2013
This isn't Daler's first political plunge. In 2013, he had joined Congress but chose to switch to the other side this time. It is important to highlight that Daler's daughter is married to Hans Raj's son.
Here are a few pictures
BJP relied on 2 famous faces in Delhi
Interestingly, for the national capital, BJP has chosen popular faces as candidates. Former cricketer Gautam Gambhir was given a ticket from East Delhi. Gambhir replaced sitting MP Maheish Girri and will take on Congress' Arvinder Singh Lovely and Atishi Marlena of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Similarly, Hans Raj will be locking horns with Congress candidate Rajesh Lilothia and AAP's Gugan Singh.
BJP's decision to field Hans Raj miffed sitting MP
However, by giving a ticket to Hans Raj, BJP miffed sitting MP Udit Raj, who joined Congress on Wednesday. Before leaving BJP, Udit posted a series of tweets tagging party president Amit Shah and warned that his followers are getting restless. Udit gave a deadline and urged the party to announce a candidate soon. Later, Udit said BJP wanted a "dumb and deaf" Dalit leader.
After switching allegiances, Udit berated BJP, called party anti-Dalit
"I wanted to join the Congress since a long time and (Congress chief) Rahul Gandhi knows this. If BJP would have given me a ticket from there (northwest), I would have fought from there. But now people know how anti-Dalit BJP is," Udit said.
As it turns out, BJP's decision wasn't hasty
BJP did its math before placing bets on Hans Raj. According to reports, he was chosen because of the caste composition of voters. "He ticked all the right boxes and also because there is a sizeable number of voters of his caste in North West Delhi," a report claimed. Notably, he resigned from vice-president post of National Commission for Safai Karmchari for general polls.
