AS THE Lok Sabha elections draw near, many prominent leaders of the Congress party are joining Bharatiya Janata Party. In this series, Nilesh Avasthi, former MLA and senior Congress leader also joined the BJP, on Thursday. He took primary membership of the party in presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, BJP Joining Committee members Narottam Mishra, Sanjay Pathak and other leaders at BJP’s State office in Bhopal. Apart from Avasthi, several other Congress leaders from Patan Assembly including Satyendra Jyotishi, a member of Congress’s Legal Cell, Shailesh Avasthi, former District President of Patan, Brijbhan Singh Yadav, Block President of Congress in Patan, Arpit Tiwari, Vikas Mishra, Sourav Vyas, Akshay Gautam, Ashwani Patel and others have also joined the BJP.

 

Speculations about Nilesh Avasthi joining the BJP had been circulating since March 26 when Ajay Vishnoi, BJP MLA from Patan had posted a picture of former Congress MLA Avasthi with a caption on facebook on March 26. In which he mentioned that Patan’s former MLA Nilesh Avasthi is also going to join BJP soon to support BJP candidate Ashish Dubey. He further wrote that he believes that BJP will field him in upcoming Assembly elections from Patan. Recently, former State Minister and MLA Lakhn Ghanghoria in a statement about speculations of Nilesh Avasthi joining BJP said that anything can be said only when the situation arises. In a sarcastic manner said everyone knows how important those who have left the Congress party are. Other senior Congress leaders in their reaction said “Whoever wants to go, can go.”