Two more former BJP leaders join Congress ahead of bypolls in Madhya Pradesh

In the last one week, two former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs have switched over to Congress in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the crucial bypolls to 28 assembly seats. Two other BJP leaders have already switched over to the Congress days ago.

Former BJP MLA from Surkhi assembly seat, Parul Sahu Kesari joined Congress on Friday in the presence of state Congress chief Kamal Nath and is likely to contest against BJP MP Jyotiradiya Scindia loyalist and minister in the state Govind Singh Rajput.

Parul defeated Rajput in the 2013 assembly election as a BJP candidate in Surkhi assembly seat of Sagar district. The two have been at loggerheads off and on the electoral arena.

Parul hit the headlines in December 2017 when she protested outside the AICC Party headquarter in New Delhi after Rajput allegedly made a derogatory remark against her, to draw the attention of then Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Parul, an MBA degree holder from London, was denied a ticket by the BJP in the 2018 assembly elections, but the BJP candidate who was fielded in her place lost to Rajput by nearly 21,000 votes.

A week ago, BJP leader from Gwalior, Satish Sikarwar joined the Congress along with two corporators and nearly 300 supporters at the party’s Bhopal office.

Sikarwar, who had contested the 2018 assembly elections from Gwalior East constituency, lost to the then Congress candidate Munna Lal Goyal. Both Munna Lal Goyal and Govind Singh Rajput switched over to the BJP in March this along with Jyotiraditya Scindia.

While joining the Congress, Parul claimed that it’s a ghar wapsi for her since her father was a Congress leader. “People of Surkhi wanted me to fight their war against fear and arrogance. When I contested in 2013, I was a new face for the people, yet they placed their faith in me. Now, in 2020, everyone can see the situation evolving around the constituency with politics of fear and arrogance.”

Earlier, in June, two stalwarts of the saffron party had switched over to the Congress. Former Gwalior MLA and three term minister Balendu Shukla and BJP leader and former Ujjain MP Premchand Gudda and his son joined the Congress.

The bypolls on 28 seats will take place in October simultaneously with Bihar Assembly elections.