In a major blow to the Congress ahead of the upcoming phases of Lok Sabha polls, party's former national media coordinator Radhika Khera joined BJP a day after resigning from her post. She quit the party claiming that she was subjected to criticism for visiting the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and that the party leadership failed to provide justice for an event that occurred in the party's Chhattisgarh headquarters.
After joining BJP, former Congress leader Radhika Khera said: "I have always heard that Congress is anti-Ram. But I am a living victim of this. The way I was treated when I went to Ram Temple to offer my prayers and later, I was denied justice. Even today, no action has been taken... The Congress party is not able to give justice to its own daughters and workers, The public is watching how they will run a nation. I want to tell the public that when they (Congress) are not able to give respect to women, they will not be able to give justice to anyone... It will become a matter of concern if the nation goes into the wrong hands."
A top Congress politician said she had a "argument" with Sushil Anand Shukla, the party's Chhattisgarh communication department in-charge, on April 30 — the day before Pawan Khera visited the state.
In her resignation letter to Congress chairman Mallikarjun Kharge, Khera noted: “It has been established since early times that those who support religion are opposed. For every Hindu, the birthplace of Lord Ram is very important. While praying there is something every Hindu considers a success, some people are opposed to it.”
She stated that she worked for the Congress for 22 years but still encountered criticism because she "couldn't stop herself from visiting the Ram Temple" in Ayodhya. “The opposition for this pious act reached a level that I couldn’t get justice for what happened to me in Chhattisgarh,” she wrote.
Deepak Baij, the chief of the Chhattisgarh Congress Committee, claimed Radhika Khera had mingled a party concern with religion for no apparent reason.