Bhopal: In a serious jolt to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh forward of the Lok Sabha elections, veteran Congressman Suresh Pachouri, generally known as one of many get together’s key organisational males within the state, joined the BJP Saturday morning, together with 10 different Congress functionaries. Pachouri left the get together after 52 lengthy years.
Among the many others who joined the BJP is a former MP and three former MLAs, together with Sanjay Shukla, the Congress’ wealthiest MLA in Madhya Pradesh. Shukla had contested and misplaced the 2023 state elections towards BJP stalwart Kailash Vijayvargiya from Indore-1 seat.
Previous to becoming a member of the BJP, Pachouri despatched his resignation to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, blaming the get together for choices on “issues of public and spiritual significance”.
He additionally accused the Congress “of deviating from the very ideas it held and stood for”.
On the becoming a member of ceremony in Bhopal, Pachouri raised questions over the Congress management declining the invitation to the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in January.
“There was an invite for the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple, nevertheless it was handled in an improper method. I’ve at all times been a proponent of the Ram temple. (The late Congress chief and former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi had in 1989 agreed that the locks of the Ram temple (web site) must be opened; I used to be a witness. Regardless of how beloved somebody is, if they don’t seem to be for Ram, they need to be left,” he stated.
“Kuch toh wajah hogi ki hum bewafa ho gae (there have to be some cause why I’ve betrayed),” he added, asserting that he “joined the BJP with none situations or calls for for any submit”.
Pachouri and the others joined the get together within the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vijayvargiya, state BJP president V.D. Sharma and senior chief Narottam Mishra.
“Wherever (get together chief) Rahul Gandhi goes, the Congress is getting completed. We would like Rahul Gandhi to take out just a few extra yatras as he’s truly ending the Congress,” CM Yadav stated on the occasion, referring to Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
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Pachouri’s profession
Pachouri had entered politics as a employee for the Indian Youth Congress in 1972. He subsequently grew to become the final secretary and president of the Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress.
A Congress chief from the state, requesting anonymity, advised ThePrint: “He was within the good books of (former PM and Congress president) Indira Gandhi ji, Rajiv and subsequently (former Congress president) Sonia Gandhi owing to his arduous work and dedication to strengthen the Congress on the grassroots-level.”
Being a robust organisational man, Pachouri might by no means win an election in his tenure.
In 1999, he had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections towards BJP chief Uma Bharti from Bhopal seat. Extra just lately, within the 2013 Madhya Pradesh elections, he was pitted towards former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa’s nephew Surendra Patwa from the Bhojpur constituency, and misplaced.
Regardless of his electoral failures, his proximity to the Gandhis ensured Pachouri loved essential positions throughout the Congress. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha 1984 after which bought re-elected in 1990, 1996 and 2002, having fun with 4 straight phrases within the Higher Home of Parliament. He was additionally the chairman of Congress Seva Dal.
He has the excellence of working with two Congress PMs, together with P.V. Narsimha Rao who inducted him as Minister of State for Defence Manufacturing in 1995. Pachouri was additionally the Minister of State for Personnel & Parliamentary Affairs throughout Manmohan Singh’s tenure.
He additionally served as president of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee in 2008.
Over the previous decade, his proximity to the facility corridors of Delhi had waned however but Pachouri remained an essential participant within the state Congress.
“Suresh Pachouri, very like Digvijaya Singh and Arun Yadav is thought to have staff on the bottom in each district of the state. Regardless of who was appointed to which place within the get together, every of them have labored with Suresh Pachouri and had been recognized to him,” a second state Congress chief advised ThePrint.
Pachouri additionally loved cheap clout throughout the BJP and shared a wholesome relationship with Shivraj Singh Chouhan owing to his seniority in politics.
On Saturday, as Pachouri together with 10 different Congress functionaries joined the BJP, Chouhan stated: “Regardless of working with two PMs of the Congress, he has an impeccable picture. He left a mark on all of the positions he served. Suresh Pachouri has been my senior and I used to be his junior, however now we’ve been given a chance to work collectively.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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