Dehradun: Former Uttarakhand minister Dinesh Aggarwal on Sunday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after resigning from the Congress party membership two days after he was named as a star campaigner for the party.
The three-time former MLA from Dharampur constituency in Dehradun, in his letter to Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Karan Mahara, resigned from the party without giving any reason.
Aggarwal had previously held portfolios of sports, forests, wildlife, and law and justice in the Congress government between 2012 and 2017.
He first became an MLA from the erstwhile Lakshman Chowk constituency and was re-elected from the same seat in 2007. The Lakshman Chowk constituency was abolished in 2012 following a delimitation. In 2012, Aggarwal contested from Dharampur constituency and became a legislator for the third time. In the 2017 and 2022 assembly elections, Aggarwal suffered defeat at the hands of BJP’s Vinod Chamoli.
He also unsuccessfully contested two assembly elections in undivided Uttar Pradesh from the erstwhile Dehradun constituency. In 2018, Aggarwal lost to BJP’s Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ in the Dehradun Mayoral polls.
Speaking at a press conference at the BJP state office, Aggarwal said he was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership to join the BJP, adding that the Congress has become “leaderless”.
“I am inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India is shining bright on the global stage under his leadership. Our young chief minister is taking the state forward with welfare schemes. I wanted to join a party which is working for the progress of the state and country,” he said.
“Congress has become leaderless. It was also one of the biggest reasons for several people leaving the party,” he added.
Many leaders of Uttarakhand Congress have left the party ahead of the Lok Sabha election. The exodus from the opposition party began with the resignation of former MLA Shailendra Rawat (Kotdwar) who joined the BJP on January 28.
Those who have left Congress recently include former Badrinath MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari, BC Khanduri, his son Manish Khanduri, senior Congress leader and former minister Harak Singh Rawat’s daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain, party’s state general secretary Mahesh Sharma, former Congress MLAs Dhan Singh Negi (Tehri), Vijaypal Sajwan (Gangotri) and Mal Chand (Purola), party general secretary Laxmi Rana, and party’s former state vice president SP Singh ‘Engineer’.
Speculations were also rife that former minister in the Uttarakhand government Rawat, who is facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case, could switch over to the BJP. Rawat, however, has denied being in contact with the BJP.
Mathura Dutt Joshi, state Congress vice president (organisation), said, “All those leaving the party are opportunists. And BJP is luring and arm-twisting our leaders and workers to switch sides.”
