Congress Veteran SM Krishna Formally Joins the BJP
Krishna, 84, resigned from the Congress on 29 January after almost five decades of association.
SM Krishna, former foreign minister who had quit the Congress in January, formally joined the BJP on Wednesday afternoon at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
“It has been a great journey in politics and I have arrived at a very important stop in my onward journey,” Krishna said, in the presence of party president Amit Shah.
Krishna, 84, resigned from the Congress on 29 January after almost five decades of association for “being sidelined by its leadership”.
He had even taken pot shots at party vice president Rahul Gandhi, saying “given my seniority in the party, at this stage, I should look to the party president, not the vice-president (Rahul), general secretary and some others.”
He further asserted that “the Congress doesn't need mass leaders these days, they only want managers who can handle a situation”.
A Congress veteran, Krishna was a trusted aide of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi governments. He was Karnataka’s chief minister between 1999 and 2004 and also served as the state’s 19th Governor.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)