In jolt to Congress, senior leaders join BJP ahead of 2027 polls

Dehradun: In a jolt to Congress, senior party members, including Laxmi Rana and Meena Sharma, formally joined BJP at BJP’s state headquarters in Dehradun on Saturday.Several other Congress workers and Darshan Lal Arya, who had contested the 2022 assembly election from Ghansali as an independent candidate, also joined BJP. Welcoming the new members, BJP Uttarakhand chief Mahendra Bhatt said BJP would emphatically win the 2027 assembly polls. “The presence of Rana, Arya and Sharma will further strengthen the party,” he said.Sharma, who previously served as chairperson of Rudrapur nagar palika, had contested the 2022 assembly election from Rudrapur on a Congress ticket. She secured 40,822 votes**, 30.8%,** but lost to BJP’s Shiv Arora. Former BJP MLA Rajkumar Thukral, who held the seat in 2012 and 2017, contested the same election as an independent and stood third**,** securing 26,988 votes. He had recently joined Congress and was regarded as a strong contender for the party ticket from Rudrapur — prompting Sharma’s move to BJP.Rana, a former zila panchayat chairperson of Rudraprayag district, had contested the 2017 assembly election from Rudraprayag, where she received 14,701 votes but was defeated by BJP’s Bharat Singh Chaudhary. Arya, meanwhile, stood fourth in Ghansali as an independent candidate in 2022, securing 4,739 votes.Congress state chief spokesperson Garima Dasauni termed the turncoats “opportunists”. “Congress had given them tickets to contest assembly elections and if they could not win the constituency, they should not blame others. Rather than strengthening the party, which gave them everything, they opted to join the BJP,” she said. Congress has announced that it will soon induct 18 senior politicians into its fold.