Lucknow: Former BJP leader and Baharaich MP Savitribai Phule on Saturday joined the Congress party in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi, Uttar Pradesh east unit general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and UP west General Secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia. Phule resigned from the party in December 2018, saying it was dividing society.
"Desh ke chowikdar ki pehredari mein, sansadhono ki chori karai ja rahi hai (the country's resources are being looted under the watch of the country's gateman)," she had said in a derisive reference to PM Narendra Modi.
Phule has been attacking the BJP and its governments at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh for their indifference to the concerns of Scheduled Castes. Asked about the Ram temple issue, pending in the Supreme Court, Phule said, "The country does not need a temple. Will it end unemployment and other problems of Dalits and backwards? The temple will benefit Brahmins, who are only 3 per cent," she had said.