JAIPUR: With the Assembly polls approaching, the trend of leaders switching parties and former bureaucrats joining parties has begun. Former Union minister and prominent Jat leader Subhash Maharia, who had joined Congress in 2019, re-joined BJP on Friday.
Arun Singh, BJP general secretary in charge of Rajasthan, party state president CP Joshi, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Rajendra Rathore, and BJP ex-state president Satish Poonia were prominent among those present at a ceremony in which Maharia re-joined he saffron party.
Along with Maharia, former UP-cadre IPS officer Gopal Meena, former IPS officer Ramdev Singh Khairwa, former IAS officer Prithvi Raj Meena (AGMUT cadre) and Dr Narsee Kirad joined BJP at the ceremony at the party’s state headquarters.
Speaking on his ‘ghar wapsi’, Maharia said, “I feel very happy to be back in my family. I have re-joined as a BJP worker. I will try to fulfil it to the best of my ability whatever responsibility the party gives me.”
Maharia said he was with BJP since 1993 and contested Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket five times. “I left BJP due to some circumstances but maintained relations with the party. We will create history in the 2023 (Rajasthan) Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. We will make efforts to increase BJP’s vote share by 20 per cent in Sikar region,” he said.
Hitting out at the Ashok Gehlot government, Maharia said Congress has failed to implement its poll promises and that corruption has grown under its rule. He claimed he had taken up these issues with the CM but the latter never acted on his assurances. Maharia claimed that he decided to quit Congress when he saw the REET paper leak trampling upon the interest of the youth.
Maharia said he wrote in his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge that not a single review meeting was conducted after Congress lost all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan to ascertain the reasons for the defeat. He also alleged that grassroots workers were ignored in Congress rule.
Arun Singh said corruption is at its peak in Rajasthan, law and order has deteriorated in the state, and people are fed up with the state government, which is why prominent Congress leaders are leaving the ruling party. “People are fighting against each other in Congress, and people are fed up. Its leaders are accepting BJP’s ideology,” he said.
Maharia was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999, and 2004. After he was defeated in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, BJP did not give him a ticket in 2014. In the 2019 general elections, he contested against BJP on a Congress ticket but lost. The Jat leader was a minister in the Vajpayee government. He also served as the national vice-president of BJP’s Kisan Morcha.
Arun Singh, BJP general secretary in charge of Rajasthan, party state president CP Joshi, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Rajendra Rathore, and BJP ex-state president Satish Poonia were prominent among those present at a ceremony in which Maharia re-joined he saffron party.
Along with Maharia, former UP-cadre IPS officer Gopal Meena, former IPS officer Ramdev Singh Khairwa, former IAS officer Prithvi Raj Meena (AGMUT cadre) and Dr Narsee Kirad joined BJP at the ceremony at the party’s state headquarters.
Speaking on his ‘ghar wapsi’, Maharia said, “I feel very happy to be back in my family. I have re-joined as a BJP worker. I will try to fulfil it to the best of my ability whatever responsibility the party gives me.”
Maharia said he was with BJP since 1993 and contested Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket five times. “I left BJP due to some circumstances but maintained relations with the party. We will create history in the 2023 (Rajasthan) Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. We will make efforts to increase BJP’s vote share by 20 per cent in Sikar region,” he said.
Hitting out at the Ashok Gehlot government, Maharia said Congress has failed to implement its poll promises and that corruption has grown under its rule. He claimed he had taken up these issues with the CM but the latter never acted on his assurances. Maharia claimed that he decided to quit Congress when he saw the REET paper leak trampling upon the interest of the youth.
Maharia said he wrote in his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge that not a single review meeting was conducted after Congress lost all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan to ascertain the reasons for the defeat. He also alleged that grassroots workers were ignored in Congress rule.
Arun Singh said corruption is at its peak in Rajasthan, law and order has deteriorated in the state, and people are fed up with the state government, which is why prominent Congress leaders are leaving the ruling party. “People are fighting against each other in Congress, and people are fed up. Its leaders are accepting BJP’s ideology,” he said.
Maharia was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999, and 2004. After he was defeated in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, BJP did not give him a ticket in 2014. In the 2019 general elections, he contested against BJP on a Congress ticket but lost. The Jat leader was a minister in the Vajpayee government. He also served as the national vice-president of BJP’s Kisan Morcha.
