In a setback to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, its three-term MLA from Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district, Kamlesh Shah, on Friday joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Bhopal.
Shah also resigned as MLA, assembly principal secretary AP Singh told PTI in the evening.
It has been accepted by Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar and the Election Commission will be informed about the resignation soon, Singh added.
The Congress' strength in the 230-member MP assembly came down to 65 after Shah's exit.
The party had won 66 seats in the 2023 assembly polls.
Chhindwara, which goes to polls in the first phase on April 19, is the home district of Congress stalwart and former chief minister Kamal Nath.
Shah was welcomed into the BJP by the party's national joint general secretary Shiv Prakash, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and state party president Vishnu Dutt Sharma.
The three-term Congress MLA joined the BJP along with his wife, Harrai Nagar Palika chairperson Madhvi Shah, and sister, district panchayat member Kesar Netam.
Shah and his family members joined the saffron outfit as they were impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's developmental works, a BJP leader said.
The state BJP's Lok Sabha poll in-charge Mahendra Singh, joint in-charge Satish Upadhyaya and senior minister Kailash Vijaywargiya, among others, were present on the occasion.
Shah said this time he and others will work to ensure the BJP wins Chhindwara in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress won from Chhindwara in the 2019 general elections. All seven Assembly seats in Chhindwara were also won by the Congress in 2023 despite a BJP wave.
Shah won from Amarwara in 2013, 2018 and 2023 assembly polls on a Congress ticket.
It was a privilege that a Congress legislator from Chhindwara has joined the BJP, CM Yadav said.
Nakul Nath, the lone Congress winner in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, has filed his nomination papers from Chhindwara, which his father Kamal Nath has represented for nine terms in Parliament. Kamal Nath is currently the MLA from the Chhindwara assembly seat.
Incidentally, the switch to the BJP from the Congress in Chhindwara gathered speed amid speculation some weeks ago that Nath and his MP son were planning to do so.
However, the father-son duo had called such news a creation of the media.
According to political observers, the BJP is aiming to induct one lakh functionaries from other parties across MP, including 50,000 in Chhindwara.
The BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Chhindwara Vivek Sahu said over 5,000 Congress workers have already joined the ruling party.
Incidentally, the Congress has lost Lok Sabha polls in Chhindwara only once since 1952.
