Cong leaders join BJP in Rajasthan
Several Congress leaders, including former ministers Rajendra Yadav and Lal Chand Kataria, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday, in a setback to the Opposition ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Former Congress MLAs Richpal Singh Mirdha, Vijaypal Mirdha and Khiladi Bairwa, former independent MLA Alok Beniwal, former state Congress chief Seva Dal Suresh Chaudhary, Rampal Sharma and Riju Jhunjhunwala, among other leaders, also joined the BJP in the presence of chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, state BJP president CP Joshi and Union minister Bhupendra Yadav at state party office.
Total 14 Congress leaders, including two former ministers and six former MLAs, joined the ruling party. Besides, 31 others, including Congress leaders, Pradhan, and retired IAS took the BJP’s membership.
The development came days after former Congress minister and tribal leader Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya joined the BJP on February 20. He was also named as the candidate from the Dungarpur-Banswara Lok Sabha seat in the party’s first list announced on March 2.
Kataria, who was a union minster of state for defence during the Congress-led UPA government in 2009 and also agriculture minister in the cabinet of Ashok Gehlot, refused to contest in assembly polls last year, pushing the speculation of him joining the BJP. Addressing the gathering, Kataria said he joined BJP due to his conscience.
“My soul was hurting me for a long time while I was with the Congress. What the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government did, our government couldn’t. The long-time pending issue of the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project was also resolved by CM Sharma who is also a son of a farmer. The Congress failed to do anything,” said Kataria after officially joining BJP in Jaipur.
“I have not joined the party as a leader but as a mere worker. I will put all efforts to execute the duties that my leaders will assign me to,” he added.
Former higher education minister Rajendra Yadav too joined BJP. His residence was searched by the Enforcement Directorate twice last year in connection to an alleged midday meal irregularity.
Additionally, former Congress MLAs Richpal Mirdha, Vijaypal Mirdha, Alok Beniwal and Khiladi Lal Bairwa and Ramnarayan Kisan also switched the party claiming their disappointment with the Congress leadership.
“Despite serving them (Congress) for over 50 years, they had always been sidelining the big leaders of the Jat community. They failed to give us anything while the Modi-led BJP government made a Jat’s son, Jagadeep Dhankhar, vice-president of the country. Congress will now have to be scared,” said Richpal Mirdha, a Jat leader.