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Former Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) leader Yoganand Shastri who joined the Congress on Saturday said that parties with similar ideologies like the Congress may be coming together since the country needs people who can save democracy and the Constitution.
"There is no special reason. I did not go far, I was sitting nearby and the ideology of the party I went to is similar to that of Congress, maybe tomorrow other parties will also come together because at this time the country needs such people who can save democracy and the Constitution... everyone should work together and this is the spirit of the Congress and this is the spirit of the NCP...," Shastri said speaking to ANI on Saturday. "This is not homecoming. That is because I was in the neighbouring house. Both the houses have the same policies, same ideology," Shastri said speaking at a press conference after joining the Congress. Heaping praises on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, the former NCP leader from the Sharad Pawar faction said, "When Sharad Pawar was asked about Rahul Gandhi, he said that there will be a day when Rahul will lead the country. His daughter (Supriya Sule) who is in the Lok Sabha also expressed the same thing." "I am grateful to Deepak Babaria who insisted me to come back to the AICC. So I am here," he added. The NCP-SCP is in alliance with the Congress party under the INDIA bloc. The party has also formulated a seat-sharing agreement in Maharashtra along with the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena. Yoganand Shastri joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2021 saying that he left the Congress as it has changed and is not the same, the way it was during Jawaharlal Nehru's time. "We believe in our culture, a person should keep on doing work and I didn't keep myself vacant. The Party didn't give me enough work, that is why I joined NCP," Shastri had told ANI. Earlier in the day, in a setback to the Congress, the party's former Delhi President Arvinder Singh Lovely, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Lovely joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde and Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva. Along with Lovely, former Congress MLAs Raj Kumar Chauhan, Naseeb Singh and Neeraj Basoya and former Youth Congress President Amit Mallik also joined the BJP. Voting for all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi is scheduled to take place on May 25, during the sixth phase of the ongoing general elections. The counting for all seven phases is scheduled for June 4. (ANI)
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