New Delhi: Ahead of the 2022 Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, on Tuesday (October 25), retired Major Vijay Singh Mankotia once again left the Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Welcoming Mankotia to the saffron party, BJP national president JP Nadda said that Mankotia has decided to leave the Congress and serve the BJP.
ANI quoted JP Nadda as saying, “Major (retired) Vijay Singh Mankotia decided to quit Congress and join BJP and serve. I welcome him to the party.”
Veteran politician and former Congress leader Major Vijay Singh Mankotia has twice quit the grand old party and later announced his retirement from active politics, blaming “dirty politics”. However, on Tuesday, Makotia joined the BJP just ahead of the state assembly elections to be held on November 12.
Retired Major Vijay Singh Mankotia joins BJP
Two-time minister Mankotia joined the BJP after quitting the Congress for the third time in 2012 amid the presence of party national president Jagat Prakash Nadda and Congress turncoat Harsh Mahajan, who recently joined the saffron party at a function at Nadda’s residence. Had happened. in the city of Bilaspur.
Mankotia, who won four consecutive elections, one as an independent and two on a Congress ticket, was inadvertently removed from the post of vice-chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Board in July 2017 for demanding the removal of then chief minister Virbhadra Singh. Was facing disproportionate assets cases.
At that time, Mankotia said that everything was in the public domain as to how the Central Bureau of Investigation caught a senior official of the State Industries Department in a bribery case and his alleged links with the Chief Minister’s Office.
After losing the 2012 assembly election from Shahpur to his arch-rival Sarveen Choudhary, Mankotia was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the Tourism Board by the Chief Minister in 2014.
The disgruntled former Kangra MLA had joined the BSP in July 2007. He was suspended from the Congress for criticizing the state leaders and the party high command.
He had released a much publicized audio CD of a telephonic conversation of monetary transactions between Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha and a former bureaucrat.
He had also released a list of corrupt bureaucrats and politicians of the state, especially those who were close to Virbhadra Singh.
(with IANS inputs)