In yet another setback to the Congress, a party legislator, Sanjay Pathak, on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the former of corruption.Congress MlA Sanjay Pathak, who quit the party alleging ill-treatment, formally joined the BJP in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday. Chouhan welcomed Pathak, who quit the Congress two days ago, into his party.
“A senior leader of the state, member of the Vidhan Sabha of Madhya Pradesh and leader of several posts in the Congress, our friend and companion Sanjay Pathak is today becoming a part of the BJP,”
said Chouhan. Before Pathak, several other Congress leaders too had opted out of the Congress across the country, including two leaders in Madhya Pradesh, to join the BJP during the ongoing election season.
Pathak is being accused of joining the BJP for the development of his mining business. The leader, however, brushed aside all the charges and said he chose to quit the Congress because it was not focused on growth of the country rather had become a private company working for the rise of a few leaders.
“There was no objective of staying in a party where the country and the state are not valued and people are in politics only for selfish motives. The Congress party which belonged to Gandhiji and Nehru disintegrated. So it is better to work independently with respect, which the Bharatiya Janata Party has given me, and to do service for the state rather than working as a paid worker for the party which now functions as a private limited company,” he said.
Meanwhile, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Sitasharan Sharma has accepted Pathak's resignation and issued notification regarding vacancy of Vijayraghogarh assembly seat. An intimation regarding this has been sent to the Election Commission.
Notably, Sanjay Pathak is the same Congress leader who along with another Congress MlA Umang Singhar, had filed a petition in the High Court demanding CBI probe in the MP Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam, which has put the State Government in tizzy.