shimla: In a severe blow to the Congress ahead of the polls, PCC working President and former minister Harsh Mahajan quit the grand old party and joined the BJP at the behest of BJP national President JP Nadda at New Delhi on Wednesday.
Mahajan, 67, son of former state Assembly Speaker late Des Raj Mahajan, was one of the close confidants of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and had been a key man handling all election campaigns of the party, under Virbhadra Singh.
Mahajan did not contest 2012 and 2017 Assembly polls despite requests from his supporters in Chamba – his home town and instead preferred to remain a think-tank for the party and had also been running the show for Virbhadra Singh, more importantly also an insider of Holly-Lodge - Singh's private bungalow.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and state BJP president Suresh Kashyap hailed the decision of Mahajan to embrace the BJP by reposing his confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Minutes after joining the BJP, Mahajan made his first salvo against his parent party alleging that the Congress has become "vision-less, directionless and leaderless."
He also lashed out at the Congress in the state, saying it is very much ruled by "maa-beta" like in Delhi.
While elaborating, he said Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh is the state Congress president and their son Vikramaditya Singh is a party MLA. Nothing has been left in the Congress after the death of the former chief minister, he told reporters.The show is entirely run by mother and son exactly as in Delhi, he alleged.
Mahajan said he had been at the helm of the Congress in both organisational and in ministerial positions since the last four decades. He also contested and won three consecutive terms in the state assembly elections and served as a cabinet minister and parliamentary secretary for ten years.
Mahajan expressed confidence that the BJP will form the next government in the state because of able and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi --a man with clear vision as having given India a stable government.