Yashpal Arya

| Feb 8, 2017, 18:53 IST

Yashpal Arya
is a former Congress leader who joined BJP in Jaunary 16, 2017 and is BJP’s candidate from Bajpur constituency for
Uttarakhand
elections 2017.
Arya was also the president of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (
Uttarakhand PCC
) from 2007-2014.
In 2012, he was elected to Uttarakhand legislative assembly from Bajpur constituency. Arya was thought to be the frontrunner for the post of chief minister of the state until the Congress high command gave the post to Vijay Bahuguna , son of former Uttar Pradesh CM late Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna.
Yashpal
Arya was born in 1952. He was a member of the Congress Party since 1992 till 2017, when he joined BJP.
Yashpal Arya joined BJP in the presence of party’s national president Amit Shah along with his son Sanjeev and former Yamunotri MLA Kedar Singh Rawat. In what came as a blow to Congress, all three made it to the BJP’s first list of candidates for assembly polls scheduled for February 15, within hours of joining the party.
Arya is a five-time MLA who held the posts of revenue and irrigation minister in the Harish Rawat-led government. He is the 11th MLA to part ways with the Congress and join its rival BJP since the political turmoil broke out in the hill state on March 18, 2016.
Arya is believed to have been upset with the functioning of chief minister Rawat. According to party insiders, Arya also wanted to field his son Sanjeev in the elections from Nainital assembly seat, a wish that the BJP has fulfilled.
Arya was a prominent Dalit face for Congress. After joining the BJP, he said, “I have remained a soldier of the Congress for over 40 years and I am leaving it with a heavy heart. The party principles have changed and there is no place for people like me in the party.”

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