BHOPAL: Former Congress MLA from Mhow, Antar Singh Darbar, and his senior party colleague from Indore, Pankaj Sanghvi, were among many leaders from the grand old party who joined the BJP in Madhya Pradesh on Friday.
The leaders officially changed their political allegiance in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
Speaking on the occasion, Yadav said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "parivar" (family) was growing fast in Madhya Pradesh among other states.
"The BJP made an ordinary party worker like me the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. The party made hardworking Modiji the chief minister of Gujarat three times," he said.
Yadav said the party made Modi the prime minister twice and under his leadership, the country is scaling new heights.
The new inductees said they embraced the saffron party as they were impressed by the magnificent works and developmental activities carried out by PM Modi in the country and CM Yadav in MP.
Sanghvi was the Congress candidate from Indore in the 2019 general elections.
The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.
Last week, former Union minister Suresh Pachouri, ex-MP Gajendra Singh Rajukhedi, former MLAs Sanjay Shukla (Indore-1), Arjun Paliya (Pipariya), Vishal Patel (Depalpur) were among the Congress leaders who switched to the ruling outfit.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 28 of the 29 seats in the state.
Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath, elected from Chhindwara, was the lone winner of the party in the state.
Several Congress leaders have switched to the BJP in Madhya Pradesh in the last two months