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Former Congress leader Brijesh Kalappa joins AAP

Kalappa, an SC lawyer, quit Congress in June

brijesh-kalappa-fb Brijesh Kalappa | Facebook

Former Congress leader and Supreme Court advocate Brijesh Kalappa, who had quit the grand old party three months ago, joined the Aam Admi Party (AAP) in Bengaluru on Monday.  

Senior leaders of AAP's Karnataka unit Mohan Dasari, Dilip Pandey, Prithvi Reddy and K. Mathai welcomed Kalappa to the party, which is bracing for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike elections. 

"Kalappa joins the growing ranks of people who want to change the politics of the country and who recognise that until we do that, none of our aspirations and dreams for development will come true," said a statement from the AAP, which also pointed out that often good people who joined politics for the right reasons were not  given the right recognition or responsibility in the political parties. 

Taking a dig at the Congress party, which had appointed Kalappa as the party's national spokesperson, the AAP said that over the last two or three decades, parties had pushed decent people to the sidelines. 

"They use their best people to maintain an appearance of integrity, and ask them to appear in public in defense of the party. But they keep them away from real power and decisions. Instead, money and muscle now decide everything, and good people are given an implicit message that they should get out. And inevitably many are leaving. But for the Aam Aadmi Party this is now a welcome trend. Our honest politics, and our commitment to fulfilling our promises to voters, and creating visible improvements in the lives of people is convincing good people in other parties that the AAP is their natural home. As a result, we are seeing increased interest among such leaders in joining the AAP. Shri Brijesh Kalappa is one such leader." 

Kalappa had resigned from the Congress party in June citing his "lack of energy and enthusiasm" towards the party.

In his Facebook post, Kalappa had thanked the party for the opportunities given to him and said he had been representing the party on Hindi, English and Kannada TV channels since the UPA years in 2013—for almost a decade—and have clocked 6,497 debates. 

“Besides, the party has been regularly assigning political work to me which I have performed to the best of my satisfaction. Regarding TV debates, I have done my very best at all times and have never ever appeared without adequate preparation for any debate. Even at the worst of times for the party in the aftermath of 2014 and 2019 debacles, I have never felt enervated and lacking in energy and enthusiasm. But, in the recent past, I have been finding myself lacking in passion, while my own performance has been listless and perfunctory. It is under these circumstances that I am left with little option but to resign from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress and to end an association that began in 1997," he had said.

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