Former Congress leader CR Kesavan on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi, citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “people-centric policies”.

Union minister VK Singh and the BJP national spokesperson Anil Baluni welcomed him into the party.

Kesavan, the great-grandson of first Indian governor-general C Rajagopalachari, said that Modi’s policies “transformed India from a fragile economy to the fifth-largest economy in the world”, ANI reported. He said: “I want to thank the BJP for having inducted me into the world’s largest political party, and that too on a day when our prime minister is scheduled to visit Tamil Nadu.”

Modi visited Tamil Nadu on Saturday to inaugurate a slew of development projects, including an integrated terminal building at the Chennai airport.

Kesavan had resigned from the Congress on February 23. In his resignation letter addressed to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, he said that he could no longer concur with what the organisation symbolises and seeks to propagate.

“I am truly sad to say that for a while now, I have not seen any vestiges of the values that made me work for the party with dedication for over two decades,” he had said. “This is why I had recently declined an organisational responsibility at the national level and also refrained from participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.”

Kesavan joined the BJP two days after another former Congress leader, Anil Antony, switched to the saffron party.

Anil Antony, the son of former Union Minister AK Antony, had quit the Congress in January days after criticising the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.