Former Uttarakhand Congress president Kishore Upadhyay joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday after he was expelled from the Congress party for six years for “anti-party activities”.
Upadhyay joined the BJP in the presence of the Union Minister and the party’s election in charge for Uttarakhand, Pralhad Joshi and other senior leaders.
BJP may field him from the Tehri Assembly seat which he had won in 2002 and 2007.
“I have joined the BJP with the spirit of taking Uttarakhand forward. You should ask Congress why such a situation has arisen.”
Upadhyay was earlier removed from all party positions. In a letter, the Congress’s Uttarakhand in-charge Devendra Yadav accused him of “continuous anti-party activities” and “hobnobbing” with the ruling BJP in the poll-bound state.
Earlier, a BJP minister Harak Singh Rawat had switched back to the Congress party, after being expelled from the BJP for six years and removed from the state Cabinet. Rawat’s daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain was named for Lansdowne constituency in the Congress’ second list.
