Raman Singh criticises ex-BJP leader Karuna Shukla

Chhattisgarh Chief Minster Raman Singh today took a potshot at former BJP leader and Congress nominee Karuna Shukla for quitting the party over denial of ticket to contest Lok Sabha elections.
Shukla, the niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had quit the BJP alleging that the party was under grip of power politics. She is contesting from Bilaspur on Congress ticket.
"We are not the kind of people who quit party after not getting election ticket for a time even after being in the party for 30 years on respected positions, as MLAs and as MPs," Singh said while addressing a party rally in Bilaspur for BJP's contestant Lakhanlal Sahu.

"Our party is our identity...It is like our mother," the chief minister said.
Sahu today filed his nomination papers.
Bilaspur is going to polls on April 24 during the third phase.

Singh said Sahu would defeat Shukla as "Bilaspur is our bastion and nobody can stop us to emerge as a winner here".
Bilaspur seat was lying vacant since the death of BJP's sitting MP Dilip Singh Judeo last year.
On the occasion, two Congress leaders Govindram Miri and Madan Singh Dahariya crossed over to BJP.
The duo attacked Shukla for being a "opportunist" leader.
"We have become associated with BJP due to its development-oriented policies but Karuna (Shukla) left her family and tradition to join Congress only for an election ticket", Miri said.

Shukla (63) had ended her 32-year-long association with BJP ahead of Assembly polls in the state last year.