Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of former Kerala CM, switches to BJP from Congress

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

General Elections, Congress leader Padmaja Venugopal, the daughter of veteran leader and former Chief Minister of Kerala, K Karunakaran, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi on Thursday.
«I am so happy. For the first time, I am changing my party as I was not happy with Congress for so many years. I had complained to the party high command but there was no response. I even came to see the leadership but they didn't see me...I have great respect for Sonia Gandhi but she never gave me time,» Padmaja said after joining the saffron party.

Venugopal joined the BJP in the presence of its Kerala in-charge and former Union minister Prakash Javadekar and other senior leaders.

The rumours that Padmaja was planning to switch parties and join the BJP began to circulate on Wednesday after she removed a Facebook post that refuted such reports.

At the beginning, Padmaja clarified on the Meta-owned platform that the rumours of her joining the BJP were just jokes.

She later took down the post, though, which fuelled more rumours about her true motivations for joining the saffron party.

Her brother and party MP K Muraleedharan said that her decision was a betrayal and would not benefit the saffron party even an ounce. Muraleedharan said that Karunakaran had never compromised with communalism and for a member of his family to join the BJP was a sad outcome as far as people with a secular mindset were concerned.