In a double blow to the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh, former minister Deepak Joshi and another leader, Radhelal Baghel, dumped the party and shook hands with the Opposition Congress.

Both the leaders joined the Congress at the MP Congress Committee Headquarters at Bhopal in the presence of MP Congress Chief Kamal Nath and other Congress leaders. Many supporters of both the former BJP leaders also followed in their leaders’ footsteps and came into the Congress fold.

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Deepak Joshi (60) is the son of one of the Jansangh’s founder members and BJP stalwart late Kailash Joshi, who was also the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Deepak Joshi joined the Congress holding a photograph of his late father in his hand.

Talking to media persons after joining the Congress, Deepak Joshi accused MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the BJP of not honouring late Kailash Joshi’s legacy. He alleged that CM Chouhan took more than 30 months in merely giving permission to build the late Kailash Joshi’s memorial at Hatpipliya in Dewas district, from where Deepak Joshi won the assembly seat two times and became a minister in the Shivraj cabinet.

Deepak Joshi averred that Shivraj Chouhan might consider him a younger brother but he did not reciprocate the feeling. Mr Joshi asserted that late PM Atal Behari Vajpayee was like God for him and would always remain so.

Mr Joshi charged that the BJP has ruined the ideology of the Jansangh. He said his intention to join the Congress is not to contest from any assembly seat, but still if the Congress fields him from the Budhni seat, which is CM Shivraj Chouhan’s seat, then he would happily contest from there.

Along with Joshi, Radhelal Baghel also joined the Congress. Mr Baghel is a former MLA of the Sewda constituency in Datia district from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). He had joined the BJP some years ago.

After joining the BJP, he was made chairman of the state backward classes commission and was also a member of the BJP state working committee.

Baghel was, however, expelled from the BJP on 18 January 2022, after a video went viral in which he was allegedly making derogatory comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Baghel had refuted the allegations claiming the video was fake and it was not his voice in the recording.

The state assembly elections in MP are due at the end of this year.