Bhopal: In a major blow to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, several leaders of the grand old party including senior leader and former Union minister Suresh Pachouri, ex-MP Gajendra Singh Rajukhedi joined the BJP in Bhopal on Saturday March 9.
The Congress leaders including Pachouri, Rajukhedi and others joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party's state headquarters in Bhopal in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, state BJP president V D Sharma and former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Besides Pachauri and Rajukheda, former MLAs Sanjay Shukla, Arjun Paliya, Vishal Patel were among the leaders of the grand old party who also joined the saffron party.
The exit of the Congress leaders to join the BJP is seen as a jolt to the grand old party ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Pachouri, who was close to the Gandhi family, was Union minister of state for defence (defence production and supplies), and also served as a four-time Rajya Sabha member of the Congress.
Besides, Pachauri also held several key positions in the Congress, including the post of the party's Madhya Pradesh unit president. He was also the state unit president of the Youth Congress.
Rajukhedi, a prominent tribal leader, was elected as an MP from Dhar (Scheduled Tribes) Lok Sabha seat on the Congress ticket for three terms - 1998, 1999 and 2009. Before joining the Congress, he was elected as a BJP MLA in 1990.
Posting the pictures of the Congress leaders joining the BJP on X, the MP unit of the saffron party wrote that the new entrants were “influenced by the public welfare schemes and policies of the organization run under the leadership of (PM) Narendra Modi ji”.
