AAP leader takes off cap, joins Cong

Eyeing Muslim votes, party calls netas from community

The Congress, which fears losing its traditional Muslim vote bank to AAP, is trying to woo the community by inviting their leaders to join the party fold.

On Thursday, it invited former Aam Aadmi Party leader Maulana Asharfi from North-East parliamentary constituency to join the Congress. Vice president of Peace Party Furkan Qureshi, who had contested in the Assembly elections from Babarpur also joined the party.

Asharfi, who claims to be one of the founder members of the AAP, marched into the Delhi Congress office with his supporters wearing aam aadmi cap and AAP’s election symbol – broom. He then and asked them to dump the caps to join the Congress.

“Arvind Kejriwal has dumped his supporters. When he was the Chief Minister of Delhi, I had requested him to help volunteers who worked for the party. But he refused to help citing busy schedule,” he said. “Where will the people go who left their jobs for AAP? So I have decided to come join the Congress party with my supporters.”

Asharfi also shared dais with AAP’s rebel MLA Vinod Kumar Binny during his two hour-long dharna at Jantar Mantar earlier this year.

Qureshi claimed that he decided to join Congress with his supporters to defeat Bharatiya Janata Party. “I had contested the municipal corporations’ election but the BJP won. I had contested the Delhi Assembly elections, again the BJP won from Babarpur area. Then I decided to join Congress to defeat BJP in the coming elections,” he said.

“I have requested all the residents of my area to vote for Congress as it is the only party which can defeat BJP.”

Party’s candidate and sitting MP from North-East Delhi constituency J P Agarwal, its state unit chief and MLA from Gandhi Nagar Arvinder Singh Lovely and chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma were also present.