Gujjar leader Bidhuri to join BJP, gives Congress the slip

A veteran of many parties, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri has been a member of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.

After keeping the Congress party guessing for almost a fortnight, former MLA and a Gujjar community leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri has finally decided to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

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Bidhuri had contested his last election from Badarpur assembly constituency in 2008 as a Nationalist Congress Party candidate and was defeated by BSP candidate Netaji Ram Singh. He was elected to Delhi Assembly in 1993 on a Janata Dal ticket and won the 2003 election on NCP ticket.

Bidhuri said he will formally join the BJP along with four of the seven NCP councillors in presence of party president Rajnath Singh and in-charge for Delhi elections Nitin Gadkari, Tuesday morning.

Bidhuri was supposed to join the Congress party along with four other people including two sitting MLAs including his political bête noire Netaji, Okhla MLA Asif Mohammad Khan, former BJP councillor Dr VK Monga and singer Daler Mehndi in a formal induction ceremony on September 6. Bidhuri, however, gave it a miss. Sources said Bidhuri did not want to share the dais with Netaji.

He later told the Hindustan Times that he was not contacted by the central leadership of the Congress and would take a final decision only after talking to his party councillors and followers on September 8.