Amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, India’s main opposition party Congress suffered another setback as former All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson Radhika Khera on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Khera resigned from Congress on Sunday, alleging there was a conspiracy against her. She also claimed she was punished for visiting the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
The former Congress politician also alleged that she had been harassed by members of the party’s Chhattisgarh unit, saying she was locked in a room and abused.
Khera further alleged that she had raised the issue with senior leaders of the party, but that no action was taken.
While talking to the media after joining the BJP, Khera thanked the Saffron Party for its support and accused Congress of being anti-Hindu.
"The manner in which I was misbehaved with on the land of Kaushalya Mata for being a devotee of Ram, for having a darshan of Ram Lalla (visiting the Ram Temple), I would not have been able to get here if I had not got the protection of the BJP government, the Modi government. Today's Congress is not Mahatma Gandhi's Congress, it is an anti-Ram, anti-Hindu Congress", she said.
Khera’s Resignation
In her resignation letter to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Khera said that she was criticised from within the party because she had visited the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Earlier, a video of her expressing grievance about disrespect towards her also went viral. In the video, she can be heard saying that nobody in the party, especially female politicians, is respected.
Later, she shared details of an incident on 30 April, alleging that the Chhattisgarh Congress unit communication wing chairperson, Sushil Anand, along with a few others had verbally abused her.
She also alleged that they locked her in a room for a minute with a few others keeping guard to prevent her from running away.
“The latch of the room was locked for a minute during the ordeal, and two people kept guard. I somehow managed to open the door and ran from there”, Khera told the media.
She further said that she had informed senior members of the party Bhupesh Baghel, Pawan Khera, and Sachin Pilot, among others, but no one helped her.