Ex-CM’s son, Pratibha Patil nephew join BJP with 2 other leaders

The other two who joined the BJP are Ashok Verma, a Bahujan Samaj Party leader, and former IAS officer Chandra Mohan Meena.

The four leaders were presented before the media at a press conference addressed by Singh and Joshi.

Singh told the media: “The individuals have influence over their communities and have worked in the political field. They are joining BJP after being troubled by the Congress’s misrule and (disillusioned with) the failed policies of the Ashok Gehlot government — they are joining BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

Stating that people are “continuously joining BJP” in the state, Singh claimed that from this, one can infer that the Congress is on its way out and people have “lost their faith” in the Gehlot government.

Singh also accused the government of not doing any work over the last four-and-half years of its tenure.

Late Jagannath Pahadia has been the only politician from Dalit community to have become the chief minister of Rajasthan. Pahadia, who later was a Governor, was Rajasthan chief minister in 1980-81 and was seen as being close to late Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi.

Om Prakash Pahadia had unsuccessfully contested the 2013 Assembly elections from Weir constituency, in his home district of Bharatpur. He was denied a ticket in 2018 Assembly polls — from the seat, the Congress had fielded Bhajanlal Jatav, who won the elections and is at present a minister in the Gehlot government.

Shekhawat had been in the Congress for a long time.