Former Indian Administrative Officer Sasikanth Senthil, who had resigned from his position last year, joined the Congress on Monday. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President KS Alagiri and All India Congress Committee General Secretary Dinesh Gundu Rao were present at the event to welcome him to the party.

At the event, Senthil hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for creating hatred in the country, The Hindu reported. “The BJP’s ideology and politics is just hate politics,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “Their only job is to create hatred and get votes based on that.”

The former IAS officer added that turning citizens against each other cannot be accepted. He said that the BJP had now brought its hate politics to Tamil Nadu. “They should not be allowed even an inch of space here,” he said, according to The Hindu.

Senthil had posted a note on Twitter on Sunday, announcing his decision to join the Congress. He also spoke about how the country was under “totalitarian attack”. Senthil added that the Congress understood the challenges being faced by the country and was ready to find solutions along with the people.

The former IAS officer was the deputy commissioner of Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district before his resignation in September 2019. He had said that it was “unethical” on his part to continue as civil servant when “fundamental building blocks of diverse democracy are being compromised”.

“I also strongly feel that the coming days will present extremely difficult challenges to the basic fabric of our nation and that I would be better off outside the IAS to continue with my work at making life better for all,” he had said in a letter.

A month before that, IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan had resigned from service because of the restrictions imposed in Jammu and Kashmir. However, he had been asked to resume duty until his resignation was accepted.