BHOPAL: In a Saturday midnight shocker for the state Congress, its former MLA Sulochana Rawat, who was considered a frontrunner for the upcoming Jobat bypoll ticket, joined BJP along with her son, Vishal.
Sulochana is a former legislator from Jobat constituency, which is due for bypoll on October 30 along with two other assembly seats. Her phone and that of Vishal’s were switched off all through Saturday.
Late in the evening, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP president V D Sharma met at the CM House. A little before midnight, Sulochana and Vishal took membership of BJP in their presence.
“We joined BJP because we were very inspired by chief minister Chouhan's leadership and the welfare schemes that he has launched over the past 16-17 years. His ration-at-doorstep scheme is a boon for tribals. We want to work under the leadership of Shivraj ji and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Vishal.
In the 2008 assembly polls, Sulochana had won the Jobat assembly seat in Alirajpur district by more than 4,500 votes as the Congress candidate against BJP’s Dawar Madho Singh. In 2013, Congress fielded her son Vishal but he was defeated by BJP’s Dawar Madho Singh BJP by 11,000 votes.
In the 2018 assembly polls, Congress gave the Jobat ticket to Kalawati Bhuria, a niece of former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria. Vishal contested as an independent candidate. Kalawati defeated Dawar Madho Singh by 2,000 votes. Vishal came third.
Kalawati died of Covid-19 in April this year, necessitating the bypoll in Jobat assembly constituency.
