The Haryana BJP expelled former Delhi Minister and AAP rebel Sandeep Kumar within six hours of his joining the party. Kumar had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday at the party office in Panchkula, in the presence of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.
According to a statement from the Haryana BJP, Kumar concealed his background, and once this was discovered, “the Bharatiya Janata Party expelled Sandeep Kumar from its primary membership.” State General Secretary Surender Punia confirmed that Kumar will no longer be part of the party in any capacity.
Kumar, originally from Sonipat, was previously with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). In 2016, AAP suspended him following a scandal involving an “objectionable CD” that depicted him in a compromising position with a woman. The woman alleged that Kumar raped her when she visited his office in Outer Delhi’s Sultanpuri to seek help with a ration card. She claimed Kumar offered her a spiked drink, and upon her falling unconscious, he took her to his house and raped her.
The allegations resulted in detention of Kumar’s arrest in 2016. The Assembly Speaker at the time announced that Kumar was disqualified under Paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution due to the gravity of the allegations. This decision was based on a petition by then AAP MLA and spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj.
Later, in 2019, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel disqualified Kumar again under the anti-defection law for supporting the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) during the Lok Sabha elections.
Besides Kumar, Ravi Sonu Kundli, the state president of the Republican Party of India (Athawale), also joined the BJP.