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BJP, BSP leaders join Congress in M.P.

Staff Correspondent

Photo: A M Faruqui.

Madhya Pradesh Congress Campaign Committee chairman Ajay Singh (centre), along with BJP and BSP leaders who joined the party, in Bhopal on Thursday.

BHOPAL: The Congress in Madhya Pradesh got a shot in the arm on Thursday when several active members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party from the Gwalior-Chambal division severed their links with their parent parties and joined the Congress bandwagon.

The chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Campaign Committee, Ajay Singh, addressed a press conference at the party headquarters here to announce the induction of the new members. This, he said, was just the beginning and more people from other parties, particularly the ruling BJP, would be joining the Congress in days to come.

Sitaram Singh Kaurav, former BJP organisation secretary for Datia, Bhind and Shivpuri districts, the Daboh Nagar Panchayat vice-chairman and active BJP member Ramdas Kushwaha, and former BJP corporator from Daboh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Salim Khan, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Daboh convener, Lalta Prasad Singh Kushwaha and corporators Sabir Beg and Meharban Singh Kushwaha, besides the district Planning Committee member and independent corporator Rakesh Kothari who have joined the Congress were present at the press conference.

The Congress campaign committee chairman told media persons that active BJP members associated for long with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were now getting disillusioned with the BJP due to rampant corruption and lack of good governance. He said the Congress was not chasing votes but was committed to communal amity and all-round progress. “At the other extreme, we have a party that only wants to grab power by dividing society and by fanning communal hatred,” he charged.

Mr. Singh said even the BSP was deviating from its proclaimed policies. “Madhya Pradesh is not Uttar Pradesh and the Chief Minister of that State should not forget this,” he quipped.

He gave credit to former State Minister Govind Singh, who was also present at the press conference, for bringing those from the Opposition parties into the Congress-fold.

To a pointed query, Mr. Singh said all Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh were united and working to strengthen the party. He said their meeting with the party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Wednesday was not for forging unity but to draw the strategy for the coming elections.

The Congress would come to power in Madhya Pradesh in November this year, he asserted.

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