Anil Antony joins Bharatiya Janata Party

The Bharatiya Janata Party announced on Thursday that Anil Antony, the senior Congressman AK Antony's son, had joined BJP. In the company of Union ministers Piyush Goyal and V Muraleedharan, he was formally welcomed into the party. Anil Antony left the Grand Old Party after a dispute over his opposition to the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Anil Antony served as the national coordinator of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and the convenor of digital media for the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

A few months after resigning from the Congress party for his divisive remark on the BBC programme. Union Minister Piyush Goyal made the announcement at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, which is a significant embarrassment for the Congress party.The tweet that create the controversy was, "Despite large differences with BJP, I think those in India placing views of BBC, a UK state sponsored channel with a long history of prejudices,and of Jack Straw, the brain behind the Iraq war, over 🇮🇳 institutions is setting a dangerous precedence, will undermine our sovereignty," reported Hindustan Times.

Anil Antony renarked that it is his dharm to work for his country. He said that the "intolerant calls" for him to delete or withdraw his tweet and the online "abuses" he had received, even from members of his own party, were what ultimately led him to make his choice.

The BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's participation in the 2002 Gujarat riots prompted Anil to resign from the party on January 25 of this year. The BBC documentary "India: The Modi Question," which detailed what happened during the Gujarat riots of 2002 while Narendra Modi served as the chief minister, had caused a huge controversy in India. The opposition criticised the Center's decision to remove the documentary from YouTube and other social media sites. The Congress had also been against the action, branding it censorship.