Raj: 2 former Cong ministers, other leaders join BJP ahead of LS polls

Jaipur: Several Congress leaders in Rajasthan, including former ministers Rajendra Yadav and Lal Chand Kataria, joined the BJP on Sunday ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Former Congress MLAs Ricchpal Mirdha, Vijaypal Mirdha and Khiladi Bairwa, former independent MLA Alok Beniwal, former state Congress chief Seva Dal Suresh Chaudhary, Rampal Sharma and Riju Jhunjhunwala among other leaders also joined the ruling party in the state.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, state BJP president C P Joshi, and Union minister Bhupendra Yadav welcomed them into the party at its state headquarters here.

Addressing a gathering, Kataria said he joined the BJP because of his conscience. He said the BJP understands the pain and suffering of farmers, the poor, and the common man. It was Chief Minister Shama who worked to resolve the issue of the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project, Kataria added.

Bairwa, who was the chairman of the SC Commission during the previous Congress rule, hit out at former chief minister Ashok Gehlot. “The then-CM considered SC people his slaves,” he alleged.

Kataria and Yadav were ministers in the previous Congress government headed by Ashok Gehlot. Kataria was also a Union minister of state in the previous UPA govt.

Yadav said the BJP will win all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state. When he was a minister in the Gehlot cabinet, the ED and the Income Tax carried out searches on premises linked to him in connection with an alleged fraud in

midday meals.