The Congress appears to have received a shot in the arm enhancing its political muscle in the Kumaon region when Bharatiya Janata Party elected councilor for the past 10 years, member of the Nainital district planning committee and the party’s State office bearer Mahendra Nagar left the party and joined the Congress at a function held here in the presence of Cabinet Minister and Halwani MlA Indira Hridayesh among others on Sunday.
Political observers point out that though the trend of major political parties trying to and succeeding or failing to poach leaders from their rival parties is likely to continue till the coming Vidhan Sabha elections, losing Nagar to the Congress has left the BJP without a valuable office-bearer influential in the Haldwani region.
The BJP turncoat averred that taking cognisance of the various developmental works being facilitated by the Finance Minister and Haldwani MlA Indira Hridayesh in the interests of the nation he had left the BJP to join the Congress in her presence.
The veteran politician and senior Cabinet minister garlanded Nagar to welcome him to the Congress party. Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Hridayesh opined that the decades-old Congress party maintains a mentality which is developmental. She claimed, “The Congress is a party which work on the ground to ensure that the benefit of the various Government schemes reaches the intended beneficiaries up to the last person in society. The Congress government through the social welfare department is providing various types of pensions to the public apart from grants in attempts to raise the level of every econiomically weaker person.
The party also accords top priority to timely completition of works related to basic issues including the swift redressal of problems related to supply of drinking water and electricity, condition of the road network and water logging.
An international-level sports stadium, inter state bus terminal, helidrome and zoo among other aspects are also being constructed to develop the Haldwani region into a hub for tourim, she added. Such efforts will help enable the authorities to make Haldwani prominently visible on the international tourist circuit map, opined Hridayesh.
Expressing his views after leaving the BJP and joining the Congress party, Mahendra Nagar alleged that the BJP-led Haldwani municipal corporation had maintained an apathetic attitude towards execution of development and various other vital tasks.
He said, “Due to the attitude to the MCH and the absence of desired level of developmental works in the area, coupled with the harassment of the local business community by the municipal corporation, I decided to leave the BJP in disappointment. I joined the Congress party on being impressed by the developmental works being facilitated by the Cabinet minister Hridayesh.”
Apart from local residents, a number of local office bearers of the Congress party and their supporters were also among those present on the occasion.