Former Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal (Retd.) RKS Bhadauria joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday. The induction ceremony was attended by Party General Secretary Vinod Tawde and Union Minister Anurag Thakur. The development comes nearly two and a half years after he retired from the armed forces.
RKS Bhadauria served as the 23rd Air Force Chief from September 30, 2019, to September 30, 2021. He lives in the Bah tehsil of Agra district. According to sources, the BJP may nominate him as its Lok Sabha candidate from Ghaziabad.
General VK Singh, another military veteran, currently serves as the Lok Sabha MP for Ghaziabad. He has served as a Member of Parliament for the constituency twice, first in 2014 and again in 2019. The BJP has yet to declare its candidates for the Ghaziabad seat among the four lists of candidates released thus far.
Soon after joining the BJP, the Air Chief Marshal (Retd.) stated that he had served the IAF for several decades, but that the "best time of my service" was during the last eight years of the Narendra Modi government. He praised the Centre's self-reliance push in the defence sector, saying "It has resulted in a new capability in them".
"I am grateful to the party leadership for giving me this opportunity to contribute to nation-building yet again. I served in the IAF for over four decades, but the last eight years under BJP leadership were the best of my career. The difficult steps taken by this government to empower and modernise our armed forces and make them self-sufficient have not only resulted in new capabilities but also in increased confidence," he said.
"The results of the government's self-reliance move are visible on the ground... From a security standpoint, the government's actions are critical and will propel India to new heights in the global arena." Bhadauria added.
The BJP's top brass held a CEC meeting yesterday, and the party is expected to release its fifth list today.