PM's half-brother joining BJP is a non-event: Chidambaram

Finance Minister P.Chidambaram on Saturday said that he saw Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's step-brother Daljit Singh Kohli's move to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a non-event.

Describing it as unimportant, Chidambaram said:"As far as I know PM's half brother has never made a political statement in his life. His joining a party (BJP) is a non-event."

He asked: "I thought the party (BJP) had set up a dirty tricks department. Is it still functional?"

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Earlier, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, expressed his sadness over Kohli joining the BJP, but added that all of his relatives were adults and he had no control over the decisions they took.

"I feel very sad. But I have no control over them. They are all adults," he told newspersons on the sidelines of the Padma awards ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Dr.Singh also said that he was quite optimistic about the UPA returning to power for a third consecutive term after the announcement of election results on May 16.

He said, "UPA III is not an impossibility."

Kohli joined the BJP at Modi's rally in Amritsar. He is a textile exporter.

Elections will be held in Amritsar on April 30.