New Delhi: In a potential setback to the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, three former civil servants who served during the current Congress-led government at the centre and the son of a former Prime Minister have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition party’s president Rajnath Singh said on Friday.

The BJP inducted former home secretary R.K. Singh, who had arrested BJP patriarch L.K. Advani in 1990 during his rath yatra in Bihar, along with former petroleum secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey and former Indian Railway Service officer Dharam Singh, in the party.

With less than six months left for the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Sunil Shastri, son of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Congress party member, also joined the BJP, a party he quit in 2009.

“The recent assembly election results in which BJP won all four states (Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) suggest that people want change and they are willing to come forward and work to bring this change," Rajnath Singh said.

Explaining his motive, R.K. Singh said, “There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those people who sit near the fence and watch, while there is another category who work to bring a change. I belong to the second category who work to bring this change."

“The BJP doesn’t compromise on national interest and there is a need to end corruption in this country. I also want to work in national interest and end corruption which is responsible for coal scam and spectrum allocation scam," said Singh, a 1975 batch Bihar cadre officer.

The retired home secretary said he arrested Advani in 1990 because it was his duty to follow government orders and that the arrest had been ordered by the then Bihar government.

“I have always done my duty and it was my duty to arrest Advani during the rath yatra. As home minister during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, Advani had appointed me in home ministry as joint secretary. He appointed me even after he knew that I had arrested him," Singh added.

Pandey, who retired in 2010, said, “Only BJP is the party that can bring change and (its prime ministerial candidate) Narendra Modi will bring this change when he become prime minister of this country."

Senior leaders of the BJP hinted that more former bureaucrats were talking to the party with similar intentions.

Shastri’s induction marked a return—he had quit the BJP and joined the Congress after the party-led UPA won the general election for the second consecutive term in 2009. “The entire country remembers Lal Bahadur Shastri and we are happy that his son Sunil Shastri has joined BJP," Rajnath Singh said.

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