Amidst 'Bharat Jodo' its 'Congress chhodo' in Himachal

New Delhi, Nov 08: Ahead of the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, several Congress leaders including former general secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee Dharampal Thakur Khand, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday in the presence of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur.

Welcoming the leaders, the Himachal CM tweeted in Hindi,"Customs are changing. Today many colleagues including former office bearers of Congress party of Shimla left the Congress party and joined the BJP. Warm welcome to all of you in the BJP family. Let us work in solidarity for the historic victory of BJP."

A total of 26 Congress leaders quit the grand old party and joined the ruling BJP with four days to go for the vote to be cast. This comes as a big jolt to the Congress party with less than a week to go for the polling, according to the news agency ANI.

The Himachal Pradesh assembly elections will be held in a single phase on November 12 and the counting of votes will take place on December 8.

It may be recalled that last month, eight of 11 Congress lawmakers had joined the ruling saffron party in Goa, marking the latest in a raft of defections from the party at a time it is in the middle of a 3,700 km-long foot march to revive its flagging electoral fortunes.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra commenced on September 7 from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. Rahul Gandhi completed the marathon walk in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana before beginning the Maharashtra leg of the yatra last week.