In another blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, which is facing a vacuum with all its top leaders in jail, Chhatarpur MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar joined the BJP on Wednesday.

Tanwar stated that he was leaving the AAP due to the party’s “dictatorship.” He said, “The condition of Delhi has become so bad. We are not able to do anything against it due to the dictatorship of AAP ministers and their policies… People of Delhi were crying for water in the peak of summer for the last three months. Whenever we raised the issue to the ministers, they blamed the Lieutenant Governor, (Prime Minister) Modi ji, and the Haryana government.”

Tanwar’s exit is a significant setback for the AAP. A party leader mentioned that Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal “personally called” Tanwar “to offer the South Delhi seat in the recent Lok Sabha elections.” However, that did not work out, and the AAP fielded Sahi Ram instead, who lost to the BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri by 69,000 votes.

Tanwar, 62, is seen as having a strong base in the Chhattarpur area of the capital. On Wednesday, he joined the BJP along with Chhattarpur ward councillor Umesh Singh Phoghat, AAP workers Ratnesh Gupta and Sachin Rai, and former Patel Nagar MLA Veena Anand.

The move to the BJP marks a return of sorts for Tanwar, who started his political career as a Municipal Corporation of Delhi councillor on the BJP ticket. He joined the AAP in 2014 and won the Assembly elections from Delhi’s Chhattarpur constituency in 2015. He retained the seat in 2020.

In July 2016, the Income Tax Department (IT) conducted raids at his residence in Fatehpur village and a farmhouse located in South Delhi. The IT Department claimed to have found cash and identified movable and immovable assets worth several hundred crores.