Jaipur (Rajasthan): Senior leader from Rajasthan Prahlad Gunjal left the BJP and joined the Congress on Thursday ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Prahlad Gunjal is an outspoken leader of Hadoti. He joined Congress at a function at the Rajasthan Congress Pradesh Committee headquarters here in the presence of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Rajasthan Congress Chief Govind Singh Dotasara, All India Congres Committee Secretary Dheeraj Gurjar.
Earlier, Gunjal along with his supporters from Kota reached here on Thursday. In the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly polls, Gunjal was fielded from the Kota North constituency on a BJP ticket, but he lost to Congress candidate Shanti Dhariwal by about 2400 votes. Before this, he had also been MLA twice.
Meanwhile, Sunil Parihar and Fateh Khan, who rebelled against not getting tickets in the assembly elections and contested the elections as an independent, also returned to the Congress on Thursday. Sunil Parihar had contested the election as an independent candidate from the Siwana seat of Barmer while Fateh Khan had contested the election as an independent candidate from the Shiv Assembly seat of Jaisalmer.
Sunil Parihar is considered close to Ashok Gehlot, while Fateh Khan has been the Barmer District Congress President. Along with this, Naresh Meena also rejoined the Congress. Meena had also rebelled and contested the assembly elections as an independent from Chhabra. Govind Singh Dotasara welcomed the trio into the grand old party.
Hindoli MLA Ashok Chandna, Bundi MLA Harimohan Sharma, Pipalda MLA Chetan Patel, Makrana MLA Zakir Hussain Gasawat, Kishangarh MLA Vikas Chaudhary, Keshoraipatan MLA CL Premi were also present on the occasion. Former Minister Shanti Dhariwal did not attend the function.
Ashok Gehlot lashed out at the BJP saying "Democracy is being torn to pieces". "Investigative agencies are being misused. Due to the intervention of the Supreme Court, irregularities in electoral bonds have come to the fore. The bank account of Congress was seized and Rs 115 crore was withdrawn from it," Gehlot said.
"This had never happened before. Today the media is under pressure. If people like Gunjal come, it will throw light on what is happening in BJP. People are feeling suffocated there. First allegations are made against opposition leaders, but as soon as they join the BJP, all the allegations are cleared. Which washing machine is installed in BJP?" asked Ghelot.
Gunjal said he worked hard for the common man for 40 years since his student days. "Now it is felt that there is an atmosphere of fear in the country. The tendency to suppress the voice of the common man with the power of power has become a challenge. Today coercion has become the character of politics," alleged Gunjal.
"One person's family has taken over the politics of Kota. There is no one left in BJP in Hadoti," he concluded.
