Veteran Congress leader AK Antony’s son Anil Antony joins BJP

Couple of months after he quit the Congress party over his controversial tweet on the BBC documentary, Anil K Antony, son of former Kerala Chief Minister AK Antony, on Thursday, April 4, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The development, which comes as a major embarrassment to the Congress party, was announced by Union Minister Piyush Goyal, at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi.

“Today is the 44th foundation day of the BJP. I’m very happy that I’m able to join the BJP on this occasion and take forward the vision of PM Narendra Modi in building this nation. PM Modi has a vision of converting India into a developed country in 25 years,” said Anil Antony, while addressing the media after becoming a member of the BJP.  “Congress workers believe that working for one family is their religion, for me working for the country is my religion,” said Anil.

Anil stepped down from the party, on January 25 this year, after a tweet against the BBC Documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, titled India: The Modi Question.He had tweeted, “Despite large differences with BJP, I think those in India placing views of BBC, a British state sponsored channel with a long history of Indian prejudices,and of Jack Straw, the brain behind the Iraq war, over Indian institutions is setting a dangerous precedence,will undermine our sovereignty."

In his announcement about his resignation, he said, “Intolerant calls to retract a tweet, by those fighting for free speech. I refused. Facebook wall of hate/abuses by ones supporting a trek to promote love! Hypocrisy thy name is! Life goes on. Redacted resignation letter below".