Former Jharkhand Congress chief Ajoy Kumar joined the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday ahead of Assembly elections in the state later this year. Kumar, a former Indian Police Service officer, had resigned from his post in the Congress in August, accusing senior colleagues of putting personal interests above the party.

Kumar joined the Aam Aadmi Party in the presence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in New Delhi. He said only AAP was truly a party of the common man, where anyone can join and work towards development, PTI reported.

In his resignation letter to former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Kumar had accused state leaders of pushing to get election tickets for their children, and of having goals such as getting power, selling tickets and accumulating money in the name of elections. He had said that as a former police officer, he felt that the worst of criminals he had faced were better than his colleagues in the Congress.

Kumar had been the state Congress chief since November 2017. Rameshwar Oraon replaced Kumar as the new Congress chief in Jharkhand.

Ajoy Kumar had offered to resign in May as well, taking “moral responsibility” for the poor performance of the Congress in the General Elections in the state. The BJP had won 11 of the 14 seats in the state, while its ally All Jharkhand Students Union won one. The Congress, meanwhile, got just one seat.

Now, follow and debate the day’s most significant stories on Scroll Exchange.