Six-time Madhya Pradesh MLA Ramniwas Rawat joined the BJP on Tuesday, in a major jolt to Congress. Rawat served as a minister in the Digvijay Singh government and was previously the executive president of MP Congress. He has now aligned himself with the BJP, with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav present during his induction.
Notably, Rawat’s defection came while senior party MP Rahul Gandhi is on a visit to the state.
Ramniwas Rawat represents the Vijaypur constituency of Sheopur district. He has been elected MLA six times from Vijaypur.
Rawat had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against Narendra Singh Tomar from the Morena seat and lost by a huge margin.
Ramniwas Rawat is a prominent leader of the OBC community.
The latest blow to the Congress party in Madhya Pradesh comes just a day after its candidate for the Indore Lok Sabha constituency, Akshay Kanti Bamb.
The Congress took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that its candidates were threatened in Surat and Indore. The Congress' Surat candidate's nomination form was rejected over discrepancies, paving the way for the BJP nominee to get elected unopposed from the seat in Gujarat.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted, "Since 1984 the Congress has not won Surat and Indore Lok Sabha seats. Yet in 2024 Congress candidates in both seats were threatened, intimidated and bulldozed into withdrawing their nominations."
Speaking about Rawat joining the party, BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agarwal said, “There is resentment in the Congress. They (Congress) are constantly making baseless allegations but they do not even realise that the ground beneath them is constantly slipping. It is an open rebellion against their leadership."
“Rahul Gandhi is making baseless statements, its (Congress) anti-Sanatan attitude, anti-Constitution attitude, their governments are doing politics of Muslim appeasement and snatching the rights of OBCs, this has been repeatedly proved, that is why Ramniwas Rawat and other Congress workers are leaving the Congress party," Agarwal said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader KK Mishra said that despite trying hard, they could not stop Rawat from joining BJP.
"Undoubtedly, Ramniwas Rawat has been a senior leader of the Congress party. I respect him a lot. He has given a lot to the party and the party has also given a lot to him. I regret his leaving the party.
We were all trying to convince him that he should serve the party, but when he had already made up his mind, what can be done about it," Mishra told.Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh are being conducted in four phases.
