Uttam Khobragade, former IAS officer and father of diplomat Devyani Khobragade, today joined the Congress, after a stint with the Ramdas Athawale- led Republican Party of India. Uttam Khobragade, who had retired in 2011, joined the Congress in New Delhi in the presence of Rahul Gandhi, party sources said here. Uttam Khobragade was the executive president of RPI(A) and had united the SC/ST associations of Maharashtra government organisations under the Bahujan Karmachari Sangh. His daughter Devyani Khobragade was at the centre of a bitter row between India and the United States in 2014. Devyani Khobragade, then India's deputy consul in New York, was charged with visa fraud and making false statements regarding the employment of her live-in domestic worker. Former IAS officer Kishor Gajbhiye, who was with the Bahujan Samaj Party earlier, also joined the Congress in Delhi today, the sources said.
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