Deepak Joshi, a prominent party leader and former minister, has joined the Opposition Congress in a blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the state Assembly elections. Joshi, the son of former chairman Minister Kailash Joshi, joined the Congress at the party's state headquarters in the presence of state chairman Kamal Nath.
Joshi, who has won three Assembly elections in a row, accused the BJP-led government of neglecting his father's legacy. Joshi initially ran for the Assembly in 2003 from Bagli in the Dewas district, and he later won twice from the Hatpiplya seat in the same area. Joshi joined Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's cabinet after his third election victory and remained a member of it until 2018.
Joshi was defeated in the 2018 Assembly election from Hatpiplya by Congress candidate Manoj Choudhary, who later joined the BJP and won the seat back in a subsequent bypoll. Choudhary and more than 20 other MLAs loyal to then-Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia shook the Congress in March 2020, causing the Kamal Nath government to fall and paving the way for the BJP to retake power in the state.
According to sources, Deepak Joshi has been mainly marginalised in the BJP since then. Madhya Pradesh's state Assembly election is set to take place later this year.
(With PTI Inputs)
