Sujanpur block's former BJP chief Rakesh Thakur joins Congress

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Hamirpur, April 8

At a time when most leaders are flocking towards the BJP, senior BJP leader and former president of Sujanpur BJP, Rakesh Thakur, shifted his loyalties towards the Congress here today. Rakesh Thakur remained the right hand of former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal and was the chairman of Zila Parishad here.

Shifting loyalties

• Rakesh Thakur remained the right-hand man of former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal
• Rajinder Rana lost LS election in 2014 as Cong candidate and is now in BJP
• Rana was elected as MLA from Congress party from Sujanpur in 2017 and 2022, expelled from Vidhan Sabha in February this year

Speaking to the media, he said the BJP leaders had not only ignored the sentiments of the workers, but also humiliated them in the constituency. He said 14 months ago, the BJP was working against Rajinder Rana as a Congress candidate from Sujanpur in the Assembly polls and now the same BJP had adopted him as its candidate.

Thakur further said that the BJP workers were demoralised and the BJP’s Sujanpur unit was a divided house after the inclusion of Rajinder Rana in the BJP. He said Rajinder Rana had played with the emotions of people repeatedly and resigning from the post he earlier held was his regular practice. He said Rana earlier resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 as Congress candidate after being elected to the Vidhan Sabha in 2012 and now again he betrayed the Congress party to realise his ambition of being in power. He said the accusation of Rana of poor development in the Sujanpur constituency was only to mislead people and gain sympathy, but Rana would not be successful in his designs.

Meanwhile, Rakesh Thakur said that Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu would be accorded a rousing welcome on his arrival at Hamirpur. He said people would vote in the name of the chief minister and claimed that the Congress would win all six Assembly bypolls and the Lok Sabha elections by huge margins.

Rana lost the Lok Sabha election in 2014 as Congress candidate. Due to his loyalty to the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, he was chosen Vice-Chairman of the State Disaster Management Authority. In 2017 he was elected MLA as Congress candidate from Sujanpur and in 2022 as well. He was expelled from the Vidhan Sabha on February 28 due to cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections and he joined the BJP later.