BJP parliamentarian and former cricketer Kirti Azad, a 1983 World Cup winner, will join the Congress on February 15 in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.
“The BJP has backstabbed me though I served it faithfully for 26 years. The Congress is the only other national party where I can go,” Azad told The Telegraph over the phone from Delhi.
The three-time Lok Sabha member from Darbhanga lambasted the BJP for having changed into a dictatorial unit run by “two-and-a-half people” and indulging in jumlebazi (hyperbolic talk) to fool the people. He also accused the party of talking about honesty but brushing corruption under the carpet.
“Everything in the BJP has changed. It has degenerated from a collective organisation to one run by two-and-a-half people,” Azad, whose father Bhagwat Jha Azad was a Congress chief minister of Bihar, said.
“Previously we would call the Prime Minister or party president and get an appointment within 24 hours. I was suspended from the party and have been seeking an appointment with them for the past three years, but haven’t got one.”
Azad said the Congress leadership had promised to field him from Darbhanga in the Lok Sabha polls.
The 60-year-old had been suspended from the BJP for “anti-party activities” in December 2015 after he alleged corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association and pointed a finger at Union minister Arun Jaitley, who has been associated with the sports body.
He said that with the general election approaching, the BJP leadership had been sending feelers to him to have him back as a full-fledged party functionary.
“I never spoke against the BJP or its organisational set-up, or against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. My fight was against corruption and irregularities in the DDCA, a private organisation, and Jaitley was a part of it. But no probe was ordered; and I was labelled a rebel and suspended,” he said.
“The BJP now wants me back in full vigour. They have been desperately seeking this for the last few months. I told the leaders to at least announce an inquiry into the DDCA corruption, against which I had fought. Do I look like a person who has no self-respect; am I a man who would spit and lick it back?”
