Former Aam Aadmi Party MLA Alka Lamba on Saturday joined the Congress, in presence of senior Congress leader PC Chacko. Lamba had quit the Congress in 2014 to join AAP, but returned to the Congress fold five years later.

Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel had on September 19 disqualified Lamba from the House, according to provisions under the anti-defection law, days after she tweeted her resignation from the AAP. Earlier in September, Lamba had said that it was time to bid farewell to the party and to give up its primary membership.

Lamba represented the Chandni Chowk Assembly seat, which has been vacated following her disqualification.

Lamba had met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in September and claimed that Gandhi “really wants” her back in the party. This came after the former AAP leader alleged that she was not called to AAP meetings and often insulted. “I spent 20 years in the Congress, and while I struggled with family politics even there, I do not even get basic respect in AAP,” she had said.

Lamba had been at loggerheads with AAP for several months. Last December, Lamba had claimed that Kejriwal asked her to resign from the party after she refused to support a proposal in the Delhi Assembly on revoking former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Bharat Ratna.

Assembly elections in Delhi for all 70 seats are expected to be held early next year. The AAP had won 67 seats in the 2015 elections, while the Bharatiya Janata Party won three and Congress none.

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