In a major setback to Congress in Himachal Pradesh, 26 party leaders and members have joined the BJP. The hill state is all set to vote on November 12 in a single phase. The leaders who switched to BJP include Dharampal Thakur Khand, former General Secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee.
The leaders joined the party in the presence of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur and BJP`s Sudhan Singh, incharge of BJP state elections. BJP candidate from Shimla, Sanjay Sood was also present on the occasion.
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Other members who quit the Congress and joined hands with the BJP are:
- Former secretary Akash Saini
- Former councillor Rajan Thakur
- Former district vice president Amit Mehta
- Mehr Singh Kanwar
- Youth Congress Rahul Negi
- Jai Maa Shakti social sansthan president Joginder Thakur
- Naresh Verma
- Chamyana ward member Yogendra Singh
- Taxi union member Rakesh Chauhan
- Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage Shimla president Dharmendra Kumar
- Virendra Sharma
- Rahul Rawat
- Sonu Sharma
- Arun Kumar
- Shivam Kumar
- Gopal Thakur
- Chaman Lal
- District Congress Committee secretary Devendra Singh
- Mahendra Singh
- Former general secretary of Youth Congress Munish Mandla
- Balkrishna Bobby
- Sunil Sharma
- Surendra Thakur
- Sandeep Samta
- Ravi
Earlier, BJP national president JP Nadda exuded confidence in the party`s victory ahead of the Himachal assembly elections and said that the people of the state trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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He lauded Chief Minister Jairam Thakur for his governance in the poll-bound state and said that he implemented policies on the ground. Himachal will go to polls on November 12 and the counting of votes will take place on December 8.
(With inputs from ANI)
