In a major setback to the Opposition Congress in Rajasthan, veteran leader and the party’s influential tribal face, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, on February 19 joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Malviya, 63, is a four-time MLA, a former Minister and a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), joined the BJP in the presence of party’s State in-charge Arun Singh.
Elected from Bagidora in Banswara district for the fourth straight term since 2008, Mr. Malviya was miffed at not being appointed the Leader of the Opposition after the Congress’s defeat in the 2023 State Assembly election. He was also elected an MP from Banswara in 1998 and he served as a Minister twice in the Congress regimes in the State.