Bhopal, July 16: Adding a new dimension to its “inclusivist” politics, the Congress has re-admitted to the party a man it had expelled and who last year defended Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, even suggesting that she be offered an Assembly poll ticket.
Inder Prajapat, who returned to the Congress amid fanfare on Tuesday, was convicted for a murderous assault on a state Congress leader in 2001. He was sentenced to seven years in jail, a verdict he subsequently challenged in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Speaking to reporters on October 30 last year, Prajapat, then general secretary of the Bharatiya Janshakti party, had defended the Sadhvi: “She is innocent. It is a conspiracy to defame the saint community.” He had even suggested that she enter politics. “She can contest from anywhere in the state.”
But on Tuesday, after he walked with hundreds of supporters to the state Congress headquarters in Bhopal, Prajapat denied reaching out to the Sadhvi. “I never offered her a ticket. Her lawyer had approached us and I took him to Uma Bharti,” he told The Indian Express.
“I can’t join the BJP because it is communal. Uma Bharti is no longer fighting the BJP, so I had no choice but to return to my old haunt,” said Prajapat who was expelled from the Congress after being sentenced to seven years in jail in 2003 for a murderous assault on the life of Manak Agarwal. Both were state Congress general secretaries when the incident happened.
Prajapat served about 30 months in jail and was released on bail after appealing against the sessions court verdict. Agarwal, who was hit by two bullets, survived and returned to politics to become the chief spokesman of the party, a post he held until recently.
–Agencies