Jolt for Congress, Former Union Min Suresh Pachouri Joins BJP

Bhopal: Congress received a major jolt in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as senior Congress leader and former Union minister Suresh Pachouri, ex-MP Gajendra Singh Rajukhedi, ex-MLAs Sanjay Shukla, Arjun Paliya, and Vishal Patel joined the BJP in Bhopal on Saturday.

They joined the saffron party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, state BJP president VD Sharma and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at the BJP’s state headquarters in Bhopal.

Pachouri was quite close to the Gandhi family. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha four times. He was Union minister of state for defence (defence production and supplies).

Rajukhedi is a tribal leader, who was elected as an MP from Dhar (Scheduled Tribes) Lok Sabha seat on the Congress ticket in 1998, 1999 and 2009. He was a BJP MLA in 1990 and later joined the Congress.