Former IAS officer K J Alphons joins BJP

Firebrand former bureaucrat K J Alphons, who rose to fame for razing illegal constructions in the capital in the 1990s, on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of party president Nitin Gadkari.

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Alphons, who had resigned from the IAS in 2006 and won the Kanjirappally assembly constituency in Kottayam district of Kerala as an independent candidate just 32 days after quitting service, told reporters that he had is joining BJP as he was "most impressed" with the party's development agenda.

The former bureaucrat resigned from his assembly seat a couple of hours before he joined BJP. Interestingly, he had won the Assembly seat with Left support.

"I have great faith in the ability of India.... I see BJP on the path of development," Alphons said.

Gadkari took the initiative to bring Alphons into the party. Both of them have a similar view on "politics of development".

"Alphons has a clean image and believes in politics for change. He is a very clean and development oriented leader. I am also appointing him as a member of the party's national executive. He will be involved with the preparation of BJP's India Vision Document as well," Gadkari said.

Alphons was declared as one of the 100 young global leaders by Time magazine in 1994. He is known for his commendable work in the field of literacy movement. Kottayam became the first district in the country to achieve 100 per cent literacy when he was the district collector there.