Raipur, May 1 (PTI) A day after quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Chhattisgarh, senior tribal leader Nand Kumar Sai on Monday joined the state’s ruling Congress.
Sai’s move is seen as a major setback for the main opposition BJP in Chhattisgarh ahead of the assembly elections to be held later this year. Sai (77), a two-time Lok Sabha member and three-time MLA, was earlier BJP state president in Chhattisgarh and undivided Madhya Pradesh. Sai has considerable influence in the tribal-dominated parts of north Chhattisgarh (Surguja division) of the state.
Sayy joined the Congress at Rajiv Bhavan, the state headquarters of the Congress, in the presence of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, State Congress Committee President Mohan Markam and state ministers. Sai had on Sunday sent his resignation to state BJP state president Arun Saw, claiming that his associates were conspiring against him and making false allegations to tarnish his image. Sai had said that he is saddened by this.
Coming from the northern region of Chhattisgarh, the main tribal face of BJP has been there for many years. He was first elected as an MLA in the year 1977 on a Janata Party ticket from Tapkara assembly seat (now in Jashpur district) of undivided Madhya Pradesh. He was appointed Raigad district unit chief by the BJP in 1980. He was elected BJP MLA from Tapkara assembly seat in 1985 and 1998.
After being elected as an MLA from Tapkara constituency, Say’s stature in the BJP continued to rise and he was also a Lok Sabha member from Raigarh Lok Sabha seat in 1989, 1996 and 2004. Later the party also made him a Rajya Sabha member in 2009 and 2010. Say was the Chhattisgarh BJP President from 2003 to 2005 and Madhya Pradesh State BJP President from 1997 to 2000. In November 2000, when the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh, he was elected the first Leader of the Opposition in the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly.
Sai was appointed chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes in 2017. Close to Lakhiram Agarwal, who played a major role in supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party in Chhattisgarh, Sai was once considered the ‘poster boy’ of the party. After the formation of the state in the year 2000, as soon as the leader of the opposition was appointed, he left no stone unturned to surround the first Chief Minister of the state, Ajit Jogi. When the assembly elections were held for the first time in the state in 2003, he decided to contest from Marwahi against Chief Minister Jogi instead of contesting from his traditional seat Tapkara. Although he was defeated in this election, the party’s government was formed in the state.
Sai often said that he had demanded the party to contest from two places, but the party made him contest only from Marwahi. Because of this the Jogis were confined to Marwahi. After the formation of the BJP government in the state under the leadership of Raman Singh, Sai could not come back to the politics of the state. From time to time, he also kept expressing displeasure against his own government. The BJP has suffered a major setback due to his resignation from the BJP on Sunday and joining the Congress party the very next day.
This is the second time after Karuna Shukla, the niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, that a strongman has joined the Congress due to disenchantment with the party in the state. Assembly elections are to be held in Chhattisgarh by the end of this year, in such a situation, joining the Congress of a big leader like Sai, the BJP may have to face trouble in the Surguja region, where the BJP is hopeful due to the displeasure of senior Congress leader TS Sihdev. is sitting
Inputs From: ETV India
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