Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], March 29 : The Congress party in Madhya Pradesh suffered a setback on Friday as a sitting Congress MLA from Amarwada assembly in Chhindwara district, Kamlesh Shah joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
Shah took the membership of the BJP along with his wife Madhavi Shah and sister Kesar Netam in the presence of CM Mohan Yadav, state BJP chief VD Sharma and others at CM House.
After joining, CM Yadav told ANI, "The BJP legislature party meeting today was fruitful as Congress MLA from Amarwada assembly in Chhindwara, Kamlesh Shah has joined the BJP. Till now BJP did not have an MLA from Chhindwara district, now Kamlesh Shah has joined the BJP. We welcome him."
Apart from this, a prominent person of Gondwana community from Chhindwara has also joined the BJP family and congratulations to him as well. Chhindwara has definitely become Modimay (impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi). It is the effect of it, CM Yadav further said.
Meanwhile, after joining the saffron party, Shah said, "The reason for joining Bharatiya Janata Party is development. I come from the tribal assembly constituency and after becoming an MLA, the development that should have happened in our area has not happened. I have joined Bharatiya Janata Party for development."
He further said that he was also impressed by the development policy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and as a result of which he joined the BJP.
When asked about whether there was any resentment with Kamal Nath, the MLA said, "There is no resentment at all towards Kamal Nath. I respect him, he is my respectable person. I will keep respecting him."
Speaking about post and designation in the BJP, Shah said that he did not join the party for any post, there was no pressure and nothing like that.
Notably, Chhindwara has been the stronghold of the Congress party. There are a total seven assembly seats in Chhindwara district and all the MLAs were from the Congress party. Now, the Congress party has six MLAs in the district.