Seven retired army officials join BJP

New Delhi, Apr 27: Seven veteran officers on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the national capital, in presence of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The officers --Lt Gen J B S Yadav, Lt Gen R N Singh, Lt Gen S K Patyal, Lt Gen Sunit Kumar, Lt Gen Nitin Kohli, Colonel R K Tripathi, and Wing Commander Navneet Magon joined the party at the BJP headquarters.

On April 06, former Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt General (Retired) Sarath Chand, who had once criticised the BJP-led Central government for cuts in defence budgets, joined the saffron party.

Sarath Chand termed the BJP as first choice for the "faujis".

"I never thought I would join politics. In the current scenario, the country needs strong leadership. I am inspired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and I thought of serving the country in whatever way I could," he said.

"No one has worked for the military as much as the BJP," he added.

A majority of the total 543 Lok Sabha constituencies have voted in this election. Now, all eyes are on the seats that head for polling in Phase 4 on Monday - April 29.