MP: Congress MLA from Bina joins BJP; third since poll announcement

Sapre, the only Congress MLA from the Sagar district, is the third MLA from the party to switch to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh since the election dates were announced

Bhopal: In another setback to the Congress party, another Congress MLA, Nirmala Sapre, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday. 

Congress MLA from Bina in MP, Nirmala Sapre, joined the BJP in an election rally in Rahatgarh on Sunday (Twitter Photo)

She joined the BJP in the presence of chief minister Mohan Yadav during an election rally in Rahatgarh. 

Sapre, the only Congress MLA from the Sagar district, is the third MLA from the party to switch to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh since the election dates were announced . The state will go to polls on May 13.

Ramniwas Rawat, former minister and six-time MLA from Vijaypur, joined the BJP on April 30. A month earlier on March 30, three-time MLA from Amarwara, Kamlesh Pratap, joined the BJP. 

Sapre, who represents the Scheduled Caste (SC) in Bundelkhand, stated that she was upset with the party leadership for not taking action against Congress state president Jitu Patwari for allegedly using objectionable words against an SC woman.

“There is no respect for women in Congress,” she said.

In the Sagar Lok Sabha constituency, out of eight assembly seats, only one seat was won by Congress in 2023. 

In Sagar, BJP has fielded Lata Vankhede against Chandrabhushan Bundela of Congress. 

Sagar has been the bastion of the BJP from where the party has won since 1996. 

The ex-Congress MLA said that she joined the BJP after she was impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dr Mohan Yadav’s development policies in the state.