With leaders and supporters of various parties shifting sides, the Congress suffered another setback whenits former party president from Roorkee rural, Satyapal joined Bharatiya Janata Party.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Satyapal said, “I like the nationalistic spirit of prime minister Narendra Modi and I liked his policies so I joined the BJP.” He added that Congress had no policy for the country and the nationalism of BJP is praiseworthy so from today “even I am Chowkidar”.
The local Mahila wing head of the Congress, Kiran Singh also joined BJP along with Desh Raj Pradhan, Ram Kumar, Satendra Verma, Saurabh Choudhary and others. They were greeted by the sitting MP and BJP candidate from Haridwar constituency, Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’, cabinet minister Madan Kaushik and MLA Swami Yateeshwaranand at a hotel here.
Meanwhile, local Congress leader Sanjay Agarwal said that Satyapal had joined BJP without any information to the Congress leadership. The reason for him changing over to the BJP was not known to the Congress, added Agarwal.
Later, at the inauguration of his election office, Nishank said that the Congress rebels had held various senior positions in their political career had now chosen to be ‘Chowkidars’ of the country by joining BJP. He said that BJP will surely win on all five Lok Sabha seats in the state including Haridwar seat and the vision to make Narendra Modi the PM again shall be materialised. He opined that Modi was messiah for the poor people and was working to make India a super power.