Senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party, Ram Tahal Chaudhary, who had won Lok Sabha elections five times from Ranchi today joined the Congress party at Congress headquarters in Delhi.
Jharkhand Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Congress Media Department Chairman Pawan Kheda, Jharkhand State President Rajesh Thakur, Minister Alamgir Alam, former Ranchi MP Subodh Kant Sahay and former Mandar MLA Bandhu Tirkey were present the programme where he took party membership.
Soon after joining the Congress, Choudhary targeted the BJP and said that the BJP asked him to give in writing that he would not participate in the Lok Sabha elections this year.
“This was a dictatorial order, which I did not like. Dictatorship has now come to BJP and other party leaders, workers and officials are not consulted for any decision,” he alleged.
The former Ranchi MP further said that the way Rahul Gandhi conducted the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra impressed him, as did the demand raised for a caste census.
He said that he is a supporter of caste census because only through such a process the share of classes will be decided and there is a demand for it across the country.
Ram Tahal Chaudhary said that Congress is suitable for building an inclusive and secular India. He said, “I will make every possible contribution in taking the INDI Alliance forward. I am always involved in good work. Dictatorship has come in the nation and democracy will not survive in the country if people are not made aware.”
Notably, Ramtahal Chaudhary is a Kurmi leader with the support of the agrarian community in rural parts of Ranchi. In 2019 he was denied a ticket by BJP and he fought the elections from Ranchi as an independent candidate but lost the polls with a huge margin.
This time Congress may try to cash in on his popularity in the rural pockets of the constituency coupled with the minority vote bank.
Chaudhary became a member of Parliament of Lok Sabha for two terms in 1991 and 1996. He was re-elected to Lokshabha in 1988 and again in 1999. In 2014, he was again elected to Lok Sabha.
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