BHOPAL : Six-time Congress MLA and former Madhya Pradesh minister Ramniwas Rawat on Tuesday snapped his decades-long association with the Congress and joined the BJP in Sheopur district. He crossed over to the BJP at a poll rally in his assembly constituency Vijaypur in Sheopur district, which forms part of the Morena Lok Sabha seat.
The latest switchover is being seen as one of the biggest jolts the grand old party has suffered during the last two months.
Rawat, a sitting MLA and a veteran OBC leader, was welcomed into the BJP party fold by CM Mohan Yadav and state party chief VD Sharma a day after Indore LS seat candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew his nomination papers and subsequently joined the BJP.
His joining assumed particular significance, as it happened at the same time when former Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressed a poll rally in the adjoining Bhind-Datia SC constituency of the same Gwalior-Chambal region.
But it was not just Rawat who somersaulted as Morena’s mayor Sharda Solanki too joined the BJP on the stage during the same rally in Vijaypur (Sheopur). With Solanki joining the BJP, three out of the five Congress mayors, including Jagat Bahadur Singh ‘Annu’ (Jabalpur), Vikram Ahake (Chhindwara) and Sharda Solanki (Morena) have joined the BJP in the poll season.