Ahead of Delhi polls, 100 business leaders join BJP

More than 100 corporate leaders joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday, giving it a big boost ahead of the Delhi assembly elections on 7 February.

Among those joining the BJP were Pervez Alamgir Khan of Lufthansa, Henry Moses, country head of Qatar Airways, Neeta Agarwal of AT&T, Jagpreet Lamba of the Aikon Group, Kapil Kumaria of the Corporate Alliance Group, Anil Parashar and Interglobe Technologies.

Besides these, Dr Naveen Talwar, senior orthopaedic surgeon, Fortis Hospital, Rajeev Tyagi, senior advocate and Rajiv Bhambri, chief executive of India Abroad newspaper USA / Canada also joined.

Many top executives of companies - Bank of America, Honeywell, SpiceJet, Bombardier, UTC, KPMG - were also present on the occasion, a statement from the party said.

The business leaders joined the BJP in the presence of party chief Amit Shah and Yuva Morcha president Anurag Thakur. According to the saffron party, Thakur was instrumental in getting them on board.

Welcoming the business leaders, Shah said they have joined a ''family''.

Addressing the corporate leaders, Shah said he was confident that the long-awaited goods and services tax (GST) would be rolled out in April 2016.

Elaborating on the steps taken by the BJP government - like Make in India, the Land Acquisition Ordinance, the Mines Ordinance - to change the business climate and restore business confidence, Shah said the perception of the country is fast changing in across the globe and it will be again riding on the high growth path in a couple of years.

The BJP chief asked the corporates to take benefit of newly-launched schemes of the government and create employment in the country.