A day after two former BJP leaders, Geeta Thakur and former MlA Dan Singh Bhandari switched to the Congress, dubbing BJP as anti-development, the State BJP chief spokesperson Munna Singh Chouhan said on Friday that they owe an explanation to the curious people as to what led to their switch. “They should disclose the deal that was struck to engineer their resignation when the state was in the thick of the biennial election,” he said. Notably, the duo quit the BJP just ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha election held on June 10. However, Bhandari did not participate the vote for the RS election. He rather resigned from the Assembly. Congress won the seat. Moreover, Geeta Thakur, one of the two BJP-supported RS candidates, left BJP and joined Congress after she was made to withdraw from the race in favour of the other candidate Anil Goel.
In a Press note, BJP said the duo had stooped low by inflicting invectives on the party that had made them what they were after they switched to the Congress. The charges made by them are frivolous meant to please their new political bosses, the statement said. It further said that Bhandari made repeated overtures to the BJP expressing his intention to return to the saffron folds. BJP being a party based on principles had no room for such self-seeking persons who can ditch the party and switch to anotherone lured by a handful of silvers, the statement said.
Chouhan said that the matter of the former MlA quitting the party a day ahead of the crucial RS election was mired in mystery. “The mists must be cleared. Besides, he must give figures of the public welfare works being cleared in his former constituency at the behest of the Chief Minister, the matter he himself raised to defend his switch. The people are curious to learn what led him to feel the sudden pang of conscience a day before the RS electionIJ Was his conscience sleeping beforeIJ” Chouhan asked, adding that the drama enacted by him to pave way for his switch to Congress was pre-mediated to give a last-minute jolt to the BJP, busy with the RS election and was the outcome of a murky deal.
He also mentioned the fact that despite the CM extending a warm-hearted welcome to take him into the Congress, the PCC chief has declined outright to provide him with the party membership. “More humiliations are awaiting them. It is clear that the Congress would not favour them with the respect they feel they deserve. They would soon repent for what they have done,” Chouhan said.