Ramkishore Shukla, who was formerly associated with the Congress but recently moved to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), raked up a political storm alleging it was all part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) poll strategy.
Speaking to reporters in Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow on Thursday, April 11, he said, “I switched to Congress just before the Assembly elections, contested Mhow on a Congress ticket and lost. All this was done as part of a poll strategy under the directions of senior RSS member Abhishek Udeniya.”
The Mhow seat was won by BJP member Usha Thakur who defeated Independent candidate (formerly with the Congress) Anant Singh Darbar.
“The reason for this was BJP was weak in the Mhow constituency. There was late-scale opposition within the party. Also, Anant Singh Darbar was fighting as an Independent candidate. Darbar had earlier won the Mhow seats twice. Therefore, I had to sacrifice myself,” Shukla told reporters.
When contacted Udeniya he termed Shukla’s allegation as baseless. Mhow MLA Usha Thakur declined to comment on the matter, the Times of India reported .
A video of Shukla went viral during the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election campaign where he, as a Congress candidate, asked voters to vote for the Lotus symbol, BJP’s official party symbol.
Soon after the assembly elections, Shukla shifted to BJP along with Anant Singh Darbar.
The Assembly elections for Madhya Pradesh were held on November 17 last year in which the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged victorious. The BJP secured a two-thirds majority in the state assembly, winning 163 of the 230 seats in the House, while the Congress came a distant second at 66.
