Shot in the arm for Congress, Pappu, Danish Ali join party
Shubhadeep Choudhury
New Delhi, March 20
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Congress got a shot in the arm as three leaders from different states — Rajesh Ranjan (Pappu Yadav), former Lok Sabha member from Bihar, Kunwar Danish Ali, LS member from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, and Lal Singh, former LS member from Jammu & Kashmir, today joined the party during separate functions held at the AICC headquarters here.
With deft intervention by Rana KP Singh, former Punjab Assembly Speaker and chairman of the screening committee of eastern Indian states, including the north-east, the Congress party today also succeeded in getting Abdul Khaleque, LS member from Barpeta in Assam, withdraw his resignation. Khaleque had resigned from the primary membership of the party after being denied ticket.
Three-time MLA and party whip of the BJP in Jharkhand assembly, Jai Prakash Patel also joined the Congress. While Yadav merged his Jan Adhikar Party, Singh united his Dogra Swabhiman Sanghathan with the Congress.
On the occasion, Pappu Yadav said he was always influenced by the secular ideology of the Congress. Danish Ali was all praise for the inclusive ideology of the Congress.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said two sittings BJP MPs, one each from Rajasthan and Haryana, joined the party earlier and more would follow.
Abdul Khaleque, sitting MLA from Barpeta and two-time former MLA, wrote to Mallikarjun Kharge that the party’s central leadership reached out to him. “Strengthening Congress is the need of the hour, hence I withdraw my resignation and wish to work under your and Rahul Gandhi’s able leadership,” Khaleque wrote.
CEC discusses candidates for four states
The Central Election Committee of Congress met on Wednesday and discussed probable candidates from the Lok Sabha constituencies of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The meeting was presided over by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by former party president Sonia Gandhi and other members of the CWC.
