Padmaja Venugopal, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary and late Chief Minister K. Karunakaran’s daughter, has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
BJP Kerala-in-charge, Prakash Javedkar, formally welcomed her into the party fold at a brief function at its headquarters in New Delhi.
Ms. Venugopal said she was pained to renounce the party “she was born into. “I greatly respect Sonia Gandhi, but she has become remote and inaccessible. My father also felt similarly shunned by the Congress leadership, which is ultimately responsible for my shift to the BJP. The Congress has no single unifying leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Ms. Venugopal said.
