The father of diplomat Devyani Khobragade, former Indian Administrative Service officer Uttam Khobragade on Friday joined the Congress in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, PTI reported.

Uttam Khobragade, who retired in 2011, has headed the Mumbai’s bus service, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport and was the executive president of the Ramdas Athawale-led Republican Party of India. He is also the president of the Bahujan Karmachari Mahasangh, an organisation which campaigns for the rights of backward caste workers.

His daughter Devyani Khobragade, an Indian Foreign Service officer, was India’s deputy consul-general in New York in 2014. She had been charged with visa fraud and underpaying her housekeeper Sangeeta Richard.

Former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Kishor Gajbhiye, also a former IAS officer, joined the Congress along with Khobragade in Delhi. Gajbhiye had contested from North Nagpur constituency in the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2014.