Jolt to Rajasthan BJP as two former MLAs join Congress

JAIPUR: In a jolt to the Rajasthan BJP, two former legislators of the party joined the Congress.

Former Nagar MLA Gopichand Gurjar and ex-Roopwas MLA Motilal Jatav were welcomed into the Congress-fold by the party’s state unit chief, Sachin Pilot, at the party office here.

Both Gurjar and Jatav are one-term MLAs who were first elected on BJP tickets in 1993. Gurjar, according to Times of India, resigned from the BJP during the Gujjar agitation in 2007-08 and contested the last assembly election from Bharatpur’s Kaman assembly constituency as an NCP candidate. He represented Bharatpur’s Nagar assembly constituency from 1993 to 1998.

Jatav represented Bharatpur’s Rupbas assembly constituency (SC seat), which later merged into Bayana constituency following the delimitation of assembly seats in 2008.

“I did not contest the 1998 election as I got disillusioned with politics,” said Jatav, whose political career started as a Mazdoor Union leader from Delhi in 1975.

Rajasthan is slated to witness Assembly polls in 2018.

(With PTI inputs)