AAP CM face in Uttarakhand elections Ajay Kothiyal joins BJP

Dehradun, May 24: Colonel (retired) A week after quitting AAP, Ajay Kothiyal, who was the party's chief ministerial candidate for the Uttarakhand assembly polls held in February, joined the ruling BJP on Tuesday. He was welcomed by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and state party president Madan Kaushik to the saffron party.

Kothiyal had resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party on May 18. Former working president of the AAP's state unit Bhoopesh Upadhyay also joined the BJP, along with Kothiyal and hundreds of their supporters.

The Uttarakhand Chief Minister said that being the son of an armyman himself he was happy to welcome an ex-serviceman into the party. "I always felt that Kothiyal's nature and AAP's ideology were not in tune with each other," the chief minister said.

"BJP is the party for Kothiyal as it is the only party which under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is honouring soldiers," Dhami said.

On his turn, Kothiyal admitted that going to the AAP was a wrong and sentimental decision taken by him. "Coming to BJP is like correcting a mistake mid course. There is wisdom in realising a mistake and correcting it before it is too late," he said.

The AAP had fielded candidates in all the 70 assembly constituencies in polls, but drew a blank although the party did well in neighbouring Punjab.

Kothiyal had also lost his deposit in the Gangotri constituency. Kothiyal is said to have been not happy with the way he was being treated by the AAP post its electoral debacle in Uttarakhand. PTI