Jolt To Congress As Senior Leader, Considered Close To Gandhis, Joins BJP

Bhopal: 

In a jolt to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, senior leader and former Union minister Suresh Pachouri, ex-MP Gajendra Singh Rajukhedi and several others, including the party’s former MLAs, joined the BJP in Bhopal today.

Mr Pachouri, Mr Rajukhedi and other leaders joined the 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 party’s state headquarters in the morning.

Former MLAs Sanjay Shukla, Arjun Paliya, Vishal Patel were among the leaders of the grand old party who also joined the ruling outfit.Mr Pachouri, who was close to the Gandhi family, was Union minister of state for defence (defence production and supplies), and also served as a four-time Rajya Sabha member of the grand old party.