Former Lok Sabha member Ramlakhan Singh of the BSP, ex-Congress MLA Neelesh Awasthi, former legislator and Congressman Ajay Yadav, among others, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday as the saffron outfit continued to induct leaders from rival parties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
भाजपा प्रदेश कार्यालय, भोपाल में मुख्यमंत्री @DrMohanYadav51 जी, प्रदेश अध्यक्ष श्री @vdsharmabjp एवं न्यू ज्वॉइनिंग टोली के प्रदेश संयोजक डॉ. @drnarottammisra की उपस्थिति में पूर्व सांसद श्री रामलखन सिंह, पूर्व विधायक पं. नीलेश अवस्थी व श्री अजय यादव समेत अन्य कांग्रेस… pic.twitter.com/X5RhYkyKcX
— BJP Madhya Pradesh (@BJP4MP) March 28, 2024
He is a former BJP Lok Sabha member from Bhind. Over the last few months, Congress leaders are joining the BJP in droves in Madhya Pradesh. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has set a target of inducting 1 lakh Congress workers and leaders in its fold as part of a strategy to win all the 29 seats in the state, according to a senior leader of the ruling outfit.
On the other hand, state Congress chief Jitu Patwari has lashed out at party deserters, saying they have no political future after switching sides. The BJP has set a specific target to induct 50,000 Congress workers from Chhindwara, the home turf of former chief minister Kamal Nath, and asked its district unit to achieve this goal, another saffron party leader said.
Chhindwara was the only Lok Sabha seat that the BJP lost to the Congress in 2019. “I think around 50,000 workers, including influential Congress leaders unhappy in the party, have already joined the BJP, ” claimed state BJP chief VD Sharma.
He said Congress is seeing “exodus” at district, tehsil, block and booth levels across the state. Sharma, seeking a second term in the Lok Sabha from Khajuraho, claimed at least 1 lakh workers of the Congress across the state are going to switch over to the BJP before voting concludes in Madhya Pradesh, where polling will take place in four phases in April-May.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Mar 28 2024 | 6:11 PM IST