New Delhi: Colonel (Retd) Ajay Kothiyal, the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) chief ministerial candidate in the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in presence of CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and senior leader Madan Kaushik in a function organised at the BJP State Office on Tuesday evening. He had recently resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party. Regarding his resignation, he had said that the resignation has been given keeping in mind the sentiments of ex-servicemen, ex-paramilitary, elderly, women, youth and intellectuals.
After Kothiyal, former Aam Aadmi Party working president Bhupesh Upadhyay has also resigned.
"I have been a member of the Aam Aadmi Party from April 19, 2021, to May 18, 2022. Keeping the feelings of ex-soldiers, ex para-military personnel, the elders, women, youths and the intellectuals, I am sending you my resignation on May 18," Kothiyal wrote to Kejriwal.
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After Colonel Ajay Kothiyal and former working president Bhupesh Upadhyay, more than three hundred office bearers had resigned collectively. In the resignations sent to the party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the office bearers expressed the way the organisation is functioning at present.
BJP created history by retaining power in Uttarakhand for the second time in a row, and that too convincingly in Uttarakhand that went to the polls in a single phase on February 14. Since its formation in 2000, power in Uttarakhand has changed every five years. BJP is the first party in Uttarakhand to return to power for a second consecutive term. The party managed to maintain its dominance despite all odds and won 47 seats, while the Congress bagged 19 seats.