Ahead of Uttarakhand polls, Congress minister, son and ex-MLA join BJP

DEHRADUN: In a major jolt to Congress with less than one month left for polling in Uttarakhand, senior Congress minister

Yashpal Arya

, his son Sanjeev along with former MLA

Kedar Singh Rawat

joined in the BJP in the presence of party chief Amit Shah in Delhi on Monday.

Yashpal has been a prominent Congress leader of Uttarakhand for the last 16 years. From 2002 to 2007, Yashpal was the Speaker of Uttarakhand assembly. From 2007 to 2014, he was with the Uttarakhand Congress.

When Congress came to power in Uttarakhand, he was inducted in the state cabinet, where he was the revenue and irrigation minister. His differences with CM Harish Rawat have been visible for last few months.

Yashpal, who had won from

Bazpur asssembly seat

of Udham Singh Nagar districy was strongly against Pradeep Tamta being given the party ticket for Rajya Sabha seat. On the issue, he met party chief Sonia Gandhi over the issue.

His 38-year-old son Sanjeev is the chairman of state co-operative board.

The third prominent Congress leader to join BJP was Kedar Singh Rawat, who won from

Yamuntori seat of Uttarakhand

in 2002.

Confirming the development, BJP spokesman Munna Singh Chauhan told TOI, "The three Congress leaders joined BJP in presence of party chief and other prominent leaders including B C Khanduri."

Reacting to the situation, Surendra Kumar media advisor to CM Harish Rawat said, "The BJP is only banking on rebels for 2017 elections as they do not have any issue to target Congress."