Raipur, August 25: Pradeep Gandhi, one of the 11 MPs expelled from the Parliament after being found guilty in the cash-for-query scam, has been reinducted in the BJP, party sources said today. Gandhi, a former MP from Rajnandgaon constituency in Chhattisgarh, has been brought back into the party fold as a special invitee in the state working committee, they said.
According to the sources, Gandhi was taken back into the BJP on the recommendation of State BJP president Ram Sewak Paikra. Pairka wrote a letter to BJP national president Nitin Gadkari seeking Gandhi”s reinduction and further nomination as special invitee in the state working committee.
Gandhi, who won from Dongargaon seat in the 2003 Chhattisgarh Assembly elections had vacated his seat for Raman Singh, when he was made the Chief Minister. Singh emerged victorious and his Lok Sabha constituency of Rajnandgaon was given to Gandhi, who won from the seat in 2004.
However, a year later, he was caught along with 10 others on-camera accepting bribe for asking questions in Lok Sabha during a sting operation, code-named ”Operation Duryodhana” and expelled from the Parliament after an enquiry by a special committee of the Lower House. The BJP also suspended him following the charges.
During the 2008 Assembly elections, there were attempts to bring him into the BJP, but they were not successful.
——–PTI