Adding more firepower and some glamour in its arsenal for upcoming Assembly elections, the City congress gained some political ground with Okhla MLA Asif Mohammad Khan and Badarpur MLA Netaji Ram Singh formally joining the party on Friday.
Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi and former BJP councillor V.K. Monga also joined the party at a function on Friday.
However, former MLA and BSP leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who was also supposed to join the Congress, “missed” the function.
Sources said Mr Bidhuri wanted a to contest from the Badarpur Assembly seat from where Mr Netaji Ram Singh is a sitting MLA. Mr Bidhuri was offered the Tughlakabad constituency to contest from but he was unhappy with the offer. Efforts to contact Mr Bidhuri turned futile.
“Joining of these members will help the party win Assembly polls,” said chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
PCC chief J.P. Agarwal said that another former councillor Tilakraj, former BJP councillor Vinita Chaudhary and Indu Mishra are also likely to join the party very soon.
Meanwhile, factionalism resurfaced in the Congress party as some unidentified person, claiming to be a Muslim resident of Krishna Nagar area, put posters against joining of former BJP councillor V.K. Monga on the hoardings of Congress party.
The person claimed in the poster that Mr Monga was an RSS worker and he should not be admitted in the Congress party.
Supporters of Mr Khan and Mr Singh made the function troublesome as they blocked the way of chief minister and other senior Congress dignitaries.
Security personnel had to push them out to make way for Ms Dikshit.
Congress general secretary and Delhi pradesh in charge Shakeel Ahmad and DPCC chief J.P. Agarwal also got stuck in the crowd. The supporters also blocked the DDU Marg during the peak hours causing heavy traffic jam in the adjoining areas.