"This is all about staying in power": Congress' Digvijay Singh on leaders joining BJP

Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India], March 9 (ANI): After several party leaders joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in some states, Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh on Saturday said that it is not about any ideology but staying in power.

"There are three political ideologies in the country- communist, Gandhi-Nehru ideology which believes in communal harmony, and third is that of the RSS. Those who are leaving Congress for the BJP, I don't think it is about the ideology because had this been the case, they would have never joined the Congress in the first place," he said.

"This is all about staying in power," he added.

Recently, former Union Minister Suresh Pachouri on Saturday pointed to some decisions, both 'political and religious', as ones that prompted his exit from the Congress.

Addressing a press conference at an event during which he was inducted into the ruling party in the state, Pachouri identified the turning down of the invitation to the 'Pran Pratishtha' of Ram Lalla by the Congress heavyweights last year as the primary reason for his exit.

Speaking to ANI after being formally inducted into the BJP, Pachouri said, "I entered politics to serve society and the country. Congress has always worked towards establishing a classless society. However, the idea stands rejected today. Some of the decision-making by the Congress high command, especially on religious and political matters, drove me closer to the edge and eventually exit the party."

A day after he resigned from the primary membership of Congress, Manish Khanduri joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Dehradun on Saturday.

Manish Khanduri, son of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and veteran BJP leader Retd Major General Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami at the BJP Mahanagar office in the state capital.

In February, in a severe blow to the grand old party, around 55 former Congress MLAs followed the footsteps of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Nanded.

In Bihar, two Congress MLAs Murari Prasad Gautam and Siddharth Saurav, and one MLA from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Sangita Kumari joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in February. (ANI)