Shimla, Oct 15 (PTI) In a jolt to the Congress ahead ofAssembly polls, Himachal Pradesh Rural Development ministerAnil Sharma is set to join the BJP.
Sharma, son of former Union Communication Minister SukhRam, announced his decision to join the saffron partyyesterday.
A formal announcement is expected to be made today.
The minister in the Virbhadra government said he has beengiven a party ticket from Mandi.
"I have been given BJP ticket from Mandi and the partyhas informed me about this,” he said.
Sharma alleged that he and his father were beingsidelined and ignored in the Congress party.
He alleged that the AICC General Secretary had invitedSukh Ram to attend the rally of Rahul Gandhi in Mandi but whenhe reached the spot, he was asked not to attend the rally.
“Is Sukh Ram not a member of the Congress," he asked.
"I was not included in any of the committees for theassembly polls and when I asked about this from HPCCpresident, he said that my name was deleted at the higherlevel which hurt me and I decided to quit," he said.
The Mandi seat was represented by Sukh Ram from 1962 tillNovember 1984, when he was elected to Lok Sabha and hisprotégé D.D.Thakur won the seat in 1985 while the BJP wrestedthe seat in 1990.
In the 1993 Assembly poll, his son Anil Sharma won fromMandi but after Sukh Ram's name surfaced in the Telecom scam,he was expelled from the Congress and formed Himachal VikasCongress which entered into a post poll alliance with BJP andjoined the government.
While Sukh Ram won from Mandi, Anil Sharma was elected tothe Rajya Sabha in 1998.
In the 2003 Assembly polls, Sukh Ram was the sole HVCmember to win the election from Mandi but he joined theCongress ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
Anil Sharma again won from Mandi in 2007 and 2012 as aCongress candidate and is set to contest as a BJP candidatethis time.PTI PCLDV.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.