lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 23, 2019 10:39 IST

In a setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Himachal Pradesh, its three-time MP Suresh Chandel, who was caught in a sting operation in cash-for-query scam in Parliament in 2005, joined the Congress on Monday.

He was inducted into the party fold in the presence of the Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Himachal Congress president Kuldeep Rathore and All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Himachal Pradesh Rajni Patil.

Before switching his loyalty to the Congress, Chandel was the national vice-president of BJP’s Kisan Morcha, a farmer’s wing of the party.

A former state BJP chief, Chandel was elected to Lok Sabha from Hamirpur in 1998, 1999 and 2004. He was reportedly feeling neglected in the party and had been lobbying for a Congress ticket to contest Lok Sabha elections from the constituency. But the Congress nominated Ram Lal Thakur as a section of the party opposed Chandel’s induction.

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had also met Chandel to pacify him, but he did not listen to them and joined the Congress.

Born in 1960, Chandel hails from Gandhi Ropa village of Bilaspur district in Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency. He was the state BJP chief of BJP from 1998 to 2000.

Chandel was among 11 MPs who were expelled from Parliament on December 23, 2005, for accepting money to raise questions in the House. He contested the assembly polls from Bilaspur as a BJP nominee in 2012 but was defeated by Congress nominee Bhumbher Thakur.

Rathore, who returned to Shimla in the afternoon, said Chandel’s entry in the Congress would make a big difference in Hamirpur. “The results will tell. The BJP had been brimming with overconfidence for long. Chandel’s entry in the Congress only reflects the growing resentment against the top leaders in the BJP,” said Rathore.

Former MLA and senior Congress leader Kuldip Singh Pathania said Chendel’s decision proved that BJP workers were unhappy with the party leadership.

Meanwhile, BJP’s election in-charge for Hamirpur Praveen Sharma it was not the right decision as the Congress was a sinking ship.