2 Rajasthan Congress ex-ministers in saffron fold, hail PM Modi

PTI

Jaipur, March 10

Several Rajasthan Congress leaders, including former ministers Rajendra Yadav and Lal Chand Kataria, joined the BJP on Sunday, days before the expected announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.

Telangana leaders join BJP

• Several Telangana leaders on Sunday joined the BJP. They are ex-MPs Godam Nagesh and Sitaram Naik, ex-MLAs Saidi Reddy and Jalagam Venkat Rao, & Congress’ Srinivas Gomase
• They joined the BJP in presence of party leaders Tarun Chugh, K Laxman, P Sudhakar Reddy, Maheshwar Reddy & Anil Baluni
• Chugh said they had joined the BJP as they were inspired by the welfare policies of PM Modi over his 10-year tenure TNS

Former Congress MLAs Ricchpal Mirdha, his son Vijaypal Mirdha and Khiladi Bairwa; former independent MLA Alok Beniwal, former state chief of Congress Seva Dal Suresh Chaudhary, Rampal Sharma and Riju Jhunjhunwala among other leaders also joined the state’s ruling party.

Former CM Ashok Gehlot hit out at these leaders, saying, “People are saying they have pressure from central agencies therefore they are leaving the Congress for the BJP.” This is a second major jolt to the Congress within a few days as former minister Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya recently joined the BJP.

Rajasthan CM Bhajanlal Sharma, state BJP president CP Joshi and Union minister Bhupendra Yadav welcomed the leaders into the party fold. Kataria said he was driven by his conscience to join the BJP. He said the BJP understood the pain and sufferings of farmers, the poor and the common man.

Bairwa hit out at Gehlot, saying he “considered SC people his slaves”. Yadav and Kataria were ministers in the Congress government headed by Gehlot which was voted out of power in November last year. Kataria was also a Union minister of state in the previous UPA government.

Yadav said the BJP would win state’s all 25 LS seats. When he was a minister in the Gehlot cabinet, the ED and the IT Department carried out searches on premises linked to him in connection with an alleged fraud in midday meals.

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