Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], May 20 : Congress leader and former Union minister Subhash Maharia joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday in the presence of BJP National General Secretary Arun Singh in Jaipur.
Besides Maharia, retired IPS officer Ramdev Singh Khariwa, retired IAS officer PR Meena, retired IPS officers Gopal Meena, Narsi Kirad and Hemant Sharma also joined the BJP.
"In protest against Congress's false promises, corruption, Jungle Raj and inspired by Prime Minister Modi's poor welfare schemes, Congress' mass base leader, former MP and former Union Minister Subhash Mahariya joined BJP believing in five principles," BJP National General Secretary Arun Singh said on Twitter.
Earlier, Subhash Maharia extended his resignation to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Maharia was in the BJP before he joined the Congress.
In 1998, 1999 and 2004, he was elected to the Lok Sabha after which he faced defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP did not give him a ticket in 2014.
In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government Maharia was a minister and he also served as the national vice president of the BJP's Kisan Morcha.
In the 2019 general elections, he contested against the BJP on a Congress ticket.
The Rajasthan unit of Congress is continuing to give a headache to the party's high command as the simmering tensions between Gehlot and Sachin pilot have come out in the open just ahead of Assembly elections in the state scheduled to be held later this year.
The Congress party is seeking another term ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
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