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Two former Congress MLAs join BJP in Madhya Pradesh
Shivdayal Bagri is a former legislator from Gunaur in Panna district while Arunoday Choubey has represented Madhya Pradesh’s Khurai assembly segment in Sagar district
BHOPAL: Two former Congress legislators in Madhya Pradesh, Shivdayal Bagri and Arunoday Choubey on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of chief minister Mohan Yadav and BJP state president VD Sharma in state capital Bhopal.
Bagri is a former legislator from Gunaur in Panna district while Choubey has represented the Khurai assembly segment in Sagar district. They attributed their decision to switch from the Congress to the BJP to their commitment to support the development of their areas and the country.
Their move comes two days after Congress leader Suresh Pachouri, a four-time Rajya Sabha member, in a surprise move joined the BJP along with former Congress MP Gajendra Singh Rajukhedi and four former legislators — Sanjay Shukla, Vishal Patel, Arjun Palia, and Satpal Palia. As Pachouri, who had served as minister of state for defence, parliamentary affairs and personnel in the Manmohan Singh government, joined the BJP, he criticised the Congress for “sidelining” its original ideology and not attending the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.
Deepak Joshi, son of former chief minister Kailash Joshi, will also return to the BJP soon. Joshi, a three-time legislator who switched from the BJP to the Congress ahead of the assembly elections last year, said he was ready to return to the BJP. “All the grievances with the BJP party have ended. Now I am ready for ‘ghar wapsi’ (my homecoming),” he said. Joshi contested the last assembly election from Khategaon as a Congress candidate and lost.
Former minister Narottam Mishra, who heads MP BJP’s committee to induct leaders from other parties, said their campaign had picked up pace. “People are joining the BJP as they realise that it is the only party that is working for the development of the poor, youth, women and farmers. We deliver on our promises”.
BJP leaders said 5,500 party leaders and workers, mostly from the Congress, have joined the BJP as part of this campaign to induct new members. An exercise is on at the district level to identify and reach out to leaders of other parties who have been sidelined by their party leadership.
Congress leaders said the BJP was using investigating agencies to arm-twist party leaders to switch sides. “The leaders, who are leaving Congress, are afraid of action against them by Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and the police. This has nothing to do with ideology,” said MP Congress president Jitu Patwari.
