By Express News Service
BHOPAL: Another former Congress legislator who switched over to the BJP has been rewarded by the ruling party with a key post in the Madhya Pradesh government.
Rahul Singh, the first-time Congress MLA from Damoh seat of Bundelkhand region, who quit the Vidhan Sabha and the Congress, and joined the ruling BJP, just a few days before the crucial November 3, 2020 assembly by-polls has been rewarded by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. He has been appointed the chairman of MP Warehousing and Logistics Corporation.
In the 2018 assembly polls, Rahul had done the giant killing act by defeating BJP veteran and state’s finance minister Jayant Malaiya by a wafer thin margin from Damoh seat of Damoh district.
By-elections are yet to be held for the Damoh seat which fell vacant due to Rahul Singh’s resignation.
A few months back Rahul’s uncle and another first-time Congress MLA Pradyuman Singh Lodhi too was made the chairman of MP Civil Supplies Corporation, just a few hours after he quit the Congress to join the BJP.
Pradyuman was among the 18 former Congress MLAs, who later won the November 3, 2020 assembly by-polls, which gave the BJP comfortable majority on its own in the 230-member Vidhan Sabha.
Presently, 11 ministers in the 30-strong Shivraj Singh Chouhan government are former Congress MLAs, whose resignation from Congress and the Vidhan Sabha had led to the collapse of the 15-months-old Kamal Nath government in March, 2020.
Meanwhile, informed sources within the ruling BJP confided to The New Indian Express that 4-5 more Congress MLAs are in touch with the BJP and are eager to join the saffron party fold. These MLAs represent seats in Malwa-Nimar, Bundelkhand and Mahakoshal region. But now enjoying a comfortable majority with 126 MLAs in the 230 member House, BJP isn’t too keen in having those legislators in it’s fold.