Former BJP members Rajkumar Thukral, Bheem Lal Arya and others join Congress Party in the presence of AICC General Secretary, Selja Kumari during a party joining program, in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)
With less than a year for the polls, two former BJP legislators and an ex-BSP MLA joined the Congress in New Delhi Saturday.
The leaders are Rajkumar Thukral, a popular leader from Rudrapur and two-time MLA, who was denied a ticket in 2022 by the BJP; Bhimlal Arya, former Ghansali MLA who was suspended from the BJP for supporting Congress in 2016; Narayan Pal, a BSP MLA from Sitarganj. Others include Gaurav Goyal, former Mayor of Roorkee, Lakhan Singh Negi, who is the current District Panchayat member from Bhimtal, Anuj Gupta, former Municipal Chairman of Mussoorie, and Yashpal Rana from Roorkee.
Thukral had contested from Udham Singh Nagar’s Rudrapur in 2012 and 2017 on a BJP ticket, even securing 59.19 per cent votes polled in 2017. However, in 2022, the BJP denied him a ticket, after which he contested as an independent. He came third, getting 20 per cent of the votes polled, while the Congress polled 30.9 per cent in the seat.
Thukral shot to popularity during the statehood movement when he was jailed. In 2003, he became the Municipal Chairman of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bhimlal Arya, who contested in the SC-reserved Ghansali seat, became a BJP MLA in 2012, but was suspended for anti-party activities. In 2016, he was disqualified by the Speaker for cross-voting in favour of the then Harish Rawat government. Though he contested on a Congress ticket in 2017 and later in 2022 as an independent, he came third in both instances.
The former BSP MLA Narayan Pal had won in 2002 and 2007, but became unsuccessful in 2012.
The leaders were inducted into the party by senior state leaders and state in-charge and MP Selja. The Congress leaders said that it is very significant that many of the leaders who joined Congress were previously associated with the BJP, and their move is an indication of discontentment with the party and leadership. Selja said that Dhami has become increasingly unpopular among the people of the state, adding that the recent cabinet rejig was an attempt to combat the public anger. When five new ministers were inducted, Congress took a dig at BJP, saying seven of the 12 ministers in the Dhami Cabinet were former Congressmen and that the BJP “needed its ideology to run its government”.
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The defection could help Congress in Udham Singh Nagar, where it currently has five of the nine assembly seats. The BJP has been feeling the heat after its legislator from Gadarpur, Arvind Pandey, was accused of land grabbing, and his family faces an FIR under fraud and criminal intimidation. A recent suicide of a farmer in the region had also resulted in protests against the government and police.
Meanwhile, the BJP state President and Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Bhatt hit back, calling Congress a party of four leaders, whosE in-charge does not even consider it necessary to visit Uttarakhand. He said that those who joined Congress had already been expelled from the BJP long ago and therefore cannot be considered faces of the party.
