In another setback to the Bhartiya Janta Party on Friday, its outgoing MP from UP’s Etawah Ashok Kumar Dohare shifted loyalties to Congress after his name was dropped by the party for the next month Lok Sabha Polls.
He has joined the Congress in presence of President Rahul Gandhi and UP West General Secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia.
BJP in a run-to to the national elections has replaced Dohre with Ramashankar Katheriya for the reserved seat of Etawah. BJP new pick Ramashankar Katheriya is an RSS ‘pracharak’, has served as General Secretary for the party and in-charge of Haryana and Punjab. He is a two-time parliamentarian from the Agra Parliamentary Seat since 2009. He is also the Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes Rawat.
Sitting BJP MP from UP's Etawah,Ashok Kumar Dohre joins Congress in presence of Congress President Rahul Gandhi pic.twitter.com/CXgY9mscpH
— ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2019
Ashok Kumar Dohare’s exit came days after BJP sitting MPs from Allahabad and Hardoi Prayagraj Shyama Charan Gupta and Anshul Verma jump ship to join Samajwadi Party after their names were dropped by the saffron party for the next month’s mega battle of ballots.
Congress has not yet declared its Candidate for Etawah Parliamentary Seat. It is expected that party may pitch him in Etawah or he may be accommodated somewhere else for the mega battle of ballots.
Congress in its Mission Uttar Pradesh has taken many small allies including Apna Dal faction, Mahan Dal and other along with it. The party has so far announced candidates on over 50 seats of the State.
80 Seats of Uttar Pradesh will vote in all seven rounds of the election from April 11 to May 19. The Counting of votes for the mega battle of ballots will take place on May 23, four days after last round of polling.
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