'I left the party with heavy heart. If a party is working against national interest, there is no other option but to leave it'
In a huge embarrassment to the Congress, its spokesperson Tom Vadakkan, once a key aide of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday and attacked his former party for its stand on the Balakot air strikes.
Vadakkan, who joined the saffron party in the presence of Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and later met its president Amit Shah, said, "I am deeply hurt and that is why I am here."
Asserting that the Congress questioned the integrity of armed forces, he said, "The attack by Pakistan on our land and the reaction from my party was sad indeed."
"I left the party with a heavy heart. If a party is working against national interest, there is no other option but to leave it," he told reporters.
In an apparent attack on party chief Rahul Gandhi's leadership of the Congress, he said he gave the party two years of his life but it has now resorted to a practise of "use and throw".
Dynastic politics has reached its zenith in the Congress, he said, adding that he believed in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development narrative.
The BJP may field Vadakkan in the Lok Sabha elections from a seat in Kerala.
Dismissing Vadakkan's criticism, the Congress said that till now he used to "abuse" Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Our best wishes to him," Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said when asked about Vadakkan joining the BJP.
Asked about Vadakkan citing dynastic politics and the Congress's stand on the Pulwama terror attack and India's retaliatory strikes as his reasons for quitting the party, Surjewala said every person who leaves a party to join another party "searching for a better future", has to say something.
"Till now, he used to abuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so what is the opinion of Modi ji and Ravi Shankar ji on that," he said.
