Former IFS officer Satendar Kumar joined the Congress in the presence of senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Uttar Pradesh PCC chief Raj Babbar Tuesday.
Welcoming Kumar's decision, Azad said the Congress was the only party that could keep the unity and integrity of the country intact.
He added that Kumar, a former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who retired on June 30, had decided to join the opposition party along with his supporters.
Kumar, who hails from the Dalit community in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, has held several important positions on foreign shores and was also the consul general of lndia in Zanzibar, ambassador of lndia to the Republic of Suriname and high commissioner of India to Barbados and Saint Lucia.
Babbar said Kumar joining the party showed that the educated and intellectual class was drifting towards the Congress.
He added that former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Kanhaiya Lal would also join the party in Lucknow on Wednesday.
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Kumar said he was attracted to the Congress because of its ideology and ideals right from his childhood days, adding that it was the only party that carried all sections of people and communities along.
In an apparent reference to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he hit out at those seeking to appropriate BR Ambedkar's legacy, saying they had nothing to do with the Dalit icon's ideology or thinking.
Kumar said Ambedkar gave us a Constitution that guaranteed justice to all.