Jaspal Rana joins Congress

Dehradun, January 10
BJP leader and ace shooter Jaspal Rana, who is a close relative of senior party leader Rajnath Singh, joined the Congress here today.

Birender Singh, general secretary and in-charge of Congress affairs in Uttarakhand, and party MP from Tehri Garhwal Vijay Bahuguna made this announcement at a press conference here.

Rana, an Arjuna awardee, had fought the 2009 parliamentary elections on the BJP ticket from the Tehri Garhwal seat but lost to Vijay Bahuguna. Rana’s sister is married to Rajnath Singh’s son. Rana’s father Narayan Singh Rana was a minister in the interim government of Uttarakhand in 2002.

Rana told mediapersons that he had been impressed by the appeal of Rahul Gandhi, who had motivated scores of youth across the country to join the Congress. “I have not joined the Congress to fight elections and will work as a common worker of the party. I have not taken this decision in haste but after due deliberation. I have been talking about joining the Congress for the past one year,” he said.

Rana criticised the BJP and said it did not use his services in the last three years. “I wasted three precious years as the party did not gave me any work nor invited me to any of its functions or programmes,” he added.

Asked what prevented him from gong to Tehri after his defeat in the elections and working for the common people, Rana said he was no ordinary man and the party deliberately ignored him.

He thanked Congress president Sonia Gandhi for accepting him as a member of the party.