Bhopal: In a major jolt to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, veteran Congressman Suresh Pachouri, known as one of the party’s key organisational men in the state, joined the BJP Saturday morning, along with 10 other Congress functionaries. Pachouri left the party after 52 long years.
Among the others who joined the BJP is a former MP and three former MLAs, including Sanjay Shukla, the Congress’ wealthiest MLA in Madhya Pradesh. Shukla had contested and lost the 2023 state elections against BJP stalwart Kailash Vijayvargiya from Indore-1 seat.
Prior to joining the BJP, Pachouri sent his resignation to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, blaming the party for decisions on “matters of public and religious significance”.
He also accused the Congress “of deviating from the very principles it held and stood for”.
At the joining ceremony in Bhopal, Pachouri raised questions over the Congress leadership declining the invitation to the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in January.
“There was an invitation for the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple, but it was dealt with in an improper manner. I have always been a proponent of the Ram temple. (The late Congress leader and former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi had in 1989 agreed that the locks of the Ram temple (site) should be opened; I was a witness. Irrespective of how beloved someone is, if they are not for Ram, they should be left,” he said.
“Kuch toh wajah hogi ki hum bewafa ho gae (there must be some reason why I have betrayed),” he added, asserting that he “joined the BJP without any conditions or demands for any post”.
Pachouri and the others joined the party in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vijayvargiya, state BJP president V.D. Sharma and senior leader Narottam Mishra.
“Wherever (party leader) Rahul Gandhi is going, the Congress is getting finished. We want Rahul Gandhi to take out a few more yatras as he is actually finishing the Congress,” CM Yadav said at the event, referring to Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
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Pachouri’s career
Pachouri had entered politics as a worker for the Indian Youth Congress in 1972. He subsequently became the general secretary and president of the Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress.
A Congress leader from the state, requesting anonymity, told ThePrint: “He was in the good books of (former PM and Congress president) Indira Gandhi ji, Rajiv and subsequently (former Congress president) Sonia Gandhi owing to his hard work and commitment to strengthen the Congress at the grassroots-level.”
Being a strong organisational man, Pachouri could never win an election in his tenure.
In 1999, he had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections against BJP leader Uma Bharti from Bhopal seat. More recently, in the 2013 Madhya Pradesh elections, he was pitted against former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa’s nephew Surendra Patwa from the Bhojpur constituency, and lost.
Despite his electoral failures, his proximity to the Gandhis ensured Pachouri enjoyed important positions within the Congress. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha 1984 and then got re-elected in 1990, 1996 and 2002, enjoying four straight terms in the Upper House of Parliament. He was also the chairman of Congress Seva Dal.
He has the distinction of working with two Congress PMs, including P.V. Narsimha Rao who inducted him as Minister of State for Defence Production in 1995. Pachouri was also the Minister of State for Personnel & Parliamentary Affairs during Manmohan Singh’s tenure.
He also served as president of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee in 2008.
Over the past decade, his proximity to the power corridors of Delhi had waned but yet Pachouri remained an important player in the state Congress.
“Suresh Pachouri, much like Digvijaya Singh and Arun Yadav is known to have workers on the ground in every district of the state. Irrespective of who was appointed to which position in the party, each of them have worked with Suresh Pachouri and were known to him,” a second state Congress leader told ThePrint.
Pachouri also enjoyed reasonable clout within the BJP and shared a healthy relationship with Shivraj Singh Chouhan owing to his seniority in politics.
On Saturday, as Pachouri along with 10 other Congress functionaries joined the BJP, Chouhan said: “Despite working with two PMs of the Congress, he has an impeccable image. He left a mark on all the positions he served. Suresh Pachouri has been my senior and I was his junior, but now we have been given an opportunity to work together.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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