Himachal Pradesh: Congress Suffers Major Setback Before Polls, 26 Congress Leaders Join BJP

GG News Bureau

Shimla, 8th Nov. The Congress party has suffered a major setback four days before the Himachal Pradesh elections. As many as 26 Congress leaders and members from the state joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, including former Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Dharampal Thakur.

The defection of 26 Congress leaders to the BJP just days before the first round of assembly elections is viewed as a major setback for the Congress party.

In the presence of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and the BJP’s state election in-charge Sudhan Singh, Congress leaders joined the BJP. Sanjay Sood, the BJP candidate from Shimla, was also present.

Those who quit the Congress include former Congress general secretary Dharampal Thakur, former secretary Akash Saini, former councillor Rajan Thakur, former district vice-president Amit Mehta Mehar Singh Kanwar, Youth Congress Rahul Negi, Jai Maa Shakti Samajik Sansthan president Joginder Thakur, Naresh Verma, Chamayana ward member Yogendra Singh, taxi union member Rakesh Chauhan, Dharmendra Kumar, president of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage Shimla, Virendra Sharma, Rahul Rawat, Sonu Sharma, Arun Kumar, Shivam Kumar and Gopal Thakur.

Apart from these, Chaman Lal, District Congress Committee secretary Devendra Singh, Mahendra Singh, former Youth Congress general secretary Munish Mandla, Balkrishna Bobby, Sunil Sharma, Surendra Thakur, Sandeep Samta and Ravi also joined the BJP on Monday itself.

All of them in the BJP were greeted warmly by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. During this, he stated, “Let us work together for the BJP’s historic victory.”

Earlier, BJP president JP Nadda expressed confidence in the party’s victory ahead of the Himachal Assembly elections, saying the people of the state have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He praised Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in the poll-bound state, saying he put policies into action. Himachal Pradesh goes to the polls on November 12, and the votes will be counted on December 8.