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Senior Congress leader from Uttarakhand Satpal Maharaj quit the party on Friday and joined BJP. This coincided with news senior disgruntled JD(U) member, N K Singh quitting JD(U).
Singh today gave clear indications that he may also be headed for the BJP.
Both leaders were miffed with their respective parties; while Satpal Maharaj aligned to the former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna was a misfit in the Harish Rawat regime, bureaucrat turned politician NK Singh was denied another term in the Rajya Sabha.
While the saffron party opened its doors for politicos from other parties, it sidelined veteran leader Jaswant Singh. Singh was denied a ticket from the Barmer seat which was instead given to Col Sonaram Choudhary, a recent entrant into the BJP from the Congress camp. Considered to be close to LK Advani, Jaswant Singh was snubbed a day after Advani was coerced into accepting the party’s writ over seat selection. Singh has held crucial portfolios of Finance, Defence and External Affairs during the NDA regime,
Satpal Maharaj, Congress’ sitting MP from Garhwal joined the BJP formally today in Delhi claiming that the ruling Congress had mishandled the natural disaster that had struck the state last year. Maharaj’s wife is a Cabinet Minister in the Congress government in Uttarakhand giving rise to speculation that the state government existence too might be threatened.
Maharaj today said he wanted Narendra Modi to become the Prime Minister as a “strong leadership” was the need of the hour for the country.
Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil rubbishing charges of Congressmen being on quit mode. Gohil said, “There are two kinds of waves. One is natural and the other is fan created. BJP has the other wave. If there is strong support for the cadre based BJP and there is a wave for Narendra Modi, why are they inducting our leaders and fielding them.”
Congress was at the receiving end today, with another party stalwart former Home Minister and Agriculture minister Buta Singh, was announced as the Samjawadi Party’s candidate from Jalore in Rajasthan. Singh whose association with the Congress dates back to the time of Indira and subsequently Rajiv Gandhi, also served as the Governor of Bihar.
JD(U)’s NK Singh had been miffed with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, ever since he was denied renomination to the Upper house. “I have sent my resignation from the primary membership of JD(U) in a letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with reasons for my severing ties with the party,” Singh told PTI.
That Singh was veering toward the BJP was evident even when he delivered his farewell speech in the Rajya Sabha, crediting estranged ally BJP for much of the development in Bihar.
Speculation was rife in the BJP camp that Jaswant Singh, might fight as an Independent since he was keen to contest this his last election from his home state.
