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Days after meeting Sonia Gandhi, the suspended BSP MP from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, Kuwar Danish Ali, joined the Congress at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in Delhi Wednesday.
Danish had joined Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra recently when it passed through Amroha in its UP leg.
At the AICC event, Danish did not mention the BSP, saying that he has decided to join the Congress for his future political journey because he had been facing “difficulties in fighting divisive forces actively”.
Danish met Sonia last week to seek her blessings for contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Amroha, from where he is set to get a Congress ticket.
He had been in touch with senior Congress leaders for the past several months and had even attended Rahul’s Yatra when it kicked off from Manipur in January.
A former JD(S) leader, Danish was elected as the MP from Amroha on the BSP ticket in 2019, when the BSP had contested the polls in alliance with the SP.
Earlier in the day, former RJD MP Rajesh Ranjan, popularly known as Pappu Yadav, merged his outfit Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) with the Congress.
A five-time MP from Bihar, Pappu Yadav is the husband of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ranjeet Ranjan. He is known for having influence in the Seemanchal and Kosi regions in the state.
After joining the Congress, Pappu Yadav said, “To save this country and its democracy and protect the Constitution, there is no other way except joining Rahul Gandhi’s fight against a dictator.”
He said he has blessings of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and that he had met him and Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday. Both the Congress and the RJD are key constituents of the Opposition INDIA bloc.
He is likely to contest as the INDIA candidate from the Purnea seat, currently held by the JD(U)’s Santosh Kushwaha.
Pappu had formed the JAP in December 2016, which had failed to win any seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha and the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls. He was then believed to have just cut into the vote base of the Mahagathbandhan in some areas.
He had represented the Madhepura and Purnea seats in the Lok Sabha in the past.
He had courted controversy in his early political innings because of his alleged involvement in the murder of Purnea CPI(M) leader Ajit Sarkar, in which he was later acquitted. Pappu, who had been locked in a tussle with Rajput leader Anand Mohan during the initial phase of the Mandal movement, had got close to socialist leader Sharad Yadav as his political manager in early 1990s. He later fell out with Sharad though.
Pappu’s move would give a shot in the arm to the Congress’s prospects in the Kosi and Seemanchal belts. They may however face a hitch in Purnea, where ex-party MP Uday Singh is also said to be a claimant to the seat.
Former Jammu and Kashmir minister and Udhampur MP Choudhary Lal Singh also rejoined the Congress at the AICC headquarters. He announced the merger of his outfit, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP), with the Congress.
Singh, 64, who hails from Kathua district, returned to the Congress amid speculation that he may be fielded from the Udhampur seat.
Singh had left the Congress to join the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections after the former denied him a ticket.
He resigned from the BJP and floated the DSSP in the wake of uproar over his participation in a rally in support of the accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January 2018.
On November 7 last year, he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case against an educational trust run by his wife and ex-legislator Kanta Andotra. However, he was released on bail three weeks after his arrest.
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During the day, the BJP MLA from Mandu in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, Jai Prakash Bhai Patel, also joined the Congress and pledged to strengthen the INDIA bloc.
Patel, who had earlier been a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA, said he wants to fulfil the dreams of his father and ex-MP Tek Lal Mahto for Jharkhand. He said he was unable to see his father’s ideology in the NDA.
Patel is now likely to contest from the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha constituency on the Congress ticket.
In another development, Congress MP from Assam’s Barpeta, Abdul Khaleque, withdrew his resignation from the party. In a letter to party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Khaleque said:
“Strengthening the Congress is the need of the hour, hence I withdraw my resignation and wish to work under your and Rahul Gandhi’s able leadership.”
Khaleque had resigned on March 15, alleging non-redressal of his grievances by Assam Congress president Bhupen Borah and AICC general secretary in-charge Jitendra Singh.
