New Delhi, Feb 1: With just four days to go before the Delhi Assembly elections on February 5, eight legislators who resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday.

The legislators who resigned from AAP and joined BJP include Girish Soni (Madhipur), Bhavna Gaur (Palam), Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Pawan Sharma (Adarsh Nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Uttam Nagar), B.S. Joon (Bijwasan), Rohit Mehrolia (Trilokpuri), and Naresh Yadav (Mahrauli). Former MLA Vijender Garg and Municipal Councillors Ajay Rai and Sunil Chadda also joined the BJP. Significantly, AAP did not allocate election tickets to any of these individuals this time. They were said to be upset with the party leadership over this.

The legislators had sent their resignation letters to AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and to the Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

Naresh Yadav, who was previously the Mehrauli candidate for AAP, was convicted by a Punjab court in December in a Quran desecration case and sentenced to two years in jail. Following this, when AAP released its fifth list of candidates for the upcoming Delhi election on February 5, the party announced Mahender Chaudhary as the new Mehrauli candidate, replacing Naresh Yadav.

Naresh Yadav in his resignation letter said the AAP abandoned its founding principle of "honest politics." He alleged the party, instead of fulfilling its pledge to reduce corruption, had "become entangled in the swamp of corruption itself", alluding to the Delhi liquor policy case in which former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his former deputy Manish Sisodia were jailed for several months.

The voting for the 70-member Delhi Assembly will take place on February 5, with the results expected on February 8. The 2025 Delhi elections could see a triangular contest among AAP, BJP, and Congress.

Welcoming the legislators and leaders into the BJP fold, BJP leader Baijayant Jay Panda described the day as "historic" as they were now free from the "disaster" of AAP, expressing hope that Delhi would be liberated from it after the February 5 elections.

--IANS

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