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Jolt to Congress as former Hamirpur MP Suresh Chandel goes back to BJP
Chandel was welcomed into the party fold by BJP national chief JP Nadda in the presence of HP chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, party’s state president Suresh Kashyap, general secretary Trilok Jamwal and organisation secretary Pavan Rana
A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bilaspur rally, former three-term Lok Sabha member Suresh Chandel quit the Congress to rejoin the BJP on Tuesday.
Chandel was welcomed into the party fold by BJP national chief JP Nadda in the presence of HP chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, party’s state president Suresh Kashyap, general secretary Trilok Jamwal and organisation secretary Pavan Rana.
The development comes six days after Congress working president and former minister Harsh Mahajan had joined the BJP in New Delhi.
Welcoming Chandel, Nadda said his “old friend” had joined the Congress for “some reasons”. “As Chandel is back now, he will work to strengthen the BJP in Bilaspur,” he added.
Chandel had earlier sent a brief resignation letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Pratibha Singh.
Stating that he was not happy with the Congress’ functioning, he said, “I left the BJP in 2019 and joined the Congress, but my body and soul are still in BJP.”
Hailing from Bilaspur, 62-year-old Chandel represented Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency thrice on the BJP ticket in 1998, 1999 and 2004. He was the state president of Himachal BJP from 1998 to 2000 and also the national vice-president of the BJP Kisan Morcha.
He was among the 11 MPs who were expelled from the Parliament on December 23, 2005, after being caught on camera accepting money to raise questions in the House. He was unseated by the Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court in 2007.
Chandel unsuccessfully contested the 2012 assembly elections on the BJP ticket from Bilaspur. He had left the saffron party on April 22, 2019, during the parliamentary elections and joined the Congress.
State BJP chief Kashyap said, “We are happy that Chandel resigned from the Congress and joined us. His exit just ahead of the assembly elections in the state has also come as a big jolt to the Congress as the opposition party was considering to field him from the Bilaspur seat.”
He said the Congress leaders got tired of nepotism and serving particular families, and were now joining the BJP.
“The BJP will repeat its government with a thumping majority in the state,” he added.
