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Madhya Pradesh Congress party suffered another major setback amid Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday as six-time MLA Ramniwas Rawat quit the grand old party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Rawat, a sitting MLA from Vijaypur assembly constituency in Sheopur district, took the membership of the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav in the district. During this, state BJP chief VD Sharma, former minister and convenor of the new joining committee Narottam Mishra, and others were also present. Vijaypur assembly constituency comes under the jurisdiction of Morena Lok Sabha seat and Rawat's departure from the party will affect the Congress party's contest in Morena seat. Morena will go to the polls in the third phase on May 7 with eight other constituencies in the state. Meanwhile, Congress leader KK Mishra said that he regretted Rawat's leaving the party and they were trying to convince him but he had already made up his mind. "Undoubtedly, Ramniwas Rawat has been a senior leader of the Congress party. I respect him a lot. He has given a lot to the party and the party has also given a lot to him. I regret his leaving the party. We were all trying to convince him that he should serve the party, but when he had already made up his mind, what can be done about it," Mishra told ANI. On the other hand, BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agarwal said that there was resentment in the Congress party. "There is resentment in the Congress. They (Congress) are constantly making baseless allegations but they do not even realise that the ground beneath them is constantly slipping. It is an open rebellion against their leadership. Rahul Gandhi is making baseless statements, its (Congress) anti-Sanatan attitude, anti-Constitution attitude, their governments are doing politics of Muslim appeasement and snatching the rights of OBCs, this has been repeatedly proved, that is why Ramniwas Rawat and other Congress workers are leaving the Congress party," Agarwal said. Earlier on Monday, Congress nominee from Indore parliamentary seat Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew his nomination papers and joined the BJP. Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh are being conducted in four phases. The first phase of polling was held on April 19 and the second phase concluded on April 26. The next two phases will be conducted on May 7 and May 13. The counting of votes will be held on June 4. Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, making it the sixth-largest state in terms of parliamentary representation. Out of these, 10 seats are reserved for SC and ST candidates, while the remaining 19 are unreserved. (ANI)
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