In what comes as a huge setback to the Congress in the wake of the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, N D Tiwari and son Rohit Shekhar are all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday.
Here's what you need to know about him.
Long association with Congress
Narayan Dutt Tiwari has been the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh three times: from January 1976 to April 1977, August 1984 to September 1985 and from June 1988 to December 1988.
He was elected to the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980, and has served as a Union minister in several portfolios in the 1980s.
Thereafter he became a Rajya Sabha member from 1985-1988, during which period he also remained the Minister of Industries in September 1985 and in addition to that, held Petroleum portfolio in 1986. He then served as India's External Affairs Minister from October 1986 until July 1987. At the time, he was elevated as Minister of Finance and Commerce and stayed so until June 1988, when he became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third time.
Governor of Andhra Pradesh during peak of Telangana movement
Tiwari was appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh on 19 August 2007, a post he held till December 28, 2009 when he was forced to resign over a sex scandal. It was during the time, on December 9, 2009 that then UPA government, announced that process of establishing a separate Telangana state would be started.
Why he is important for the BJP
The induction of the 91-year-old leader controversial leader into the BJP is reportedly an attempt to consolidate the Brahmin vote in the hill state of Uttarakhand.
Caught in a sex scandal at 84
The veteran Congress leader was allegedly involved in a sex scandal that began with the broadcast of a video by a Telugu channel that showed Tiwari in bed with women at his official residence in the Raj Bhavan. A police complaint was filed against Tiwari for "sexually abusing girls, blackmail and misuse of office" and the Raj Bhavan staff were interrogated. Although Tiwari issued a public apology, he later claimed he was being framed due to a political conspiracy. The scandal was alleged to be the result of a fallout of a mining deal.
Faced Paternity Suit at age 83
In 2008, Rohit Shekhar, born to Ujjwala Sharma, until then unknown, filed a paternity suit claiming Tiwari was his biological father. A court ordered DNA tests on Tiwari and his son. The DNA test results released by the court in July 2012 established that Tiwari was indeed the biological father of Rohit Shekhar, and that Ujjwala Sharma was the biological mother. In March 2014, Tiwari accepted that Shekhar was his son. Same year in May, Tiwari married Ujjwala Sharma, Shekhar's mother, in Lucknow.