BREAKING NEWS: Jyotiraditya Scindia joins BJP, accuses Congress of corruption and lacking vision

NEW DELHI: Jyotiraditya Scindia, one of the pillars of Congress in Madhya Pradesh, on Wednesday (March 11, 2020) joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party's headquarter office in New Delhi. Addressing the press conference at the BJP HQ, Scindia said, "I would like to thank BJP chief JP Nadda Ji, PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah that they invited me to their family and gave me a place in it.’’

"There have been 2 life-changing events for me - one, the day I lost my father and the second, yesterday when I decided to choose a new path for my life, '' he added.

Scindia also accused his former party Congress of corruption and said that it is not the same party which it was earlier. 

"I have worked for my state and my nation through Congress but the party is not same anymore, there is widespread corruption in the party, sand mafias and farmer distress," Scindia said.

''There is a denial of reality in Congress, it has changed what the party used to be. I was hurt and distressed as I was not able to serve the people in my previous organisation,'' Scindia told reporters.

Stating reasons what forced him to quit his former party of several years and why he decided to join the saffron camp, Scindia said, ''I can say with confidence that the aim of public service is not being fulfilled by that party (Congress). Besides this, the present condition of the party indicates that it is not what it used to be.''

While praising the PM Narendra Modi for his extra-ordinary leadership, Scindia said, ''Country's future is totally secure in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hands. The dream we saw for Madhya Pradesh has been shattered in 18 months.''  

Scindia who resigned from the Congress on Holi (March 10, 2020) after he was sidelined by the leadership started his journey with the BJP in presence of party president Jagat Prakash Nadda and other senior party leaders.

Scindia went to BJP headquarter at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg in New Delhi along with party spokesperson Jafar Islam, who played a key role in getting the former Congress leader to join his party. Scindia is likely to get the Rajya Sabha ticket from the BJP.

The 49-year-old former Lok Sabha MP from Guna resigned from the Congress and posted his letter to party's interim president Sonia Gandhi on his Twitter handle soon after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday.

He had joined the Congress party on December 18, 2001, following the death of his father and the then sitting MP from Guna Madhavrao Scindia in an airplane crash in Uttar Pradesh on September 30, 2001.

He won Guna Lok Sabha seat in a by-election on February 24, 2002, and was re-elected the May 2004 General Election. He won again in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections but lost to BJP's Krishna Pal Singh Yadav in 2019.