Madhya Pradesh Bypolls 2024: BJP-Turned-Congress Leader Deepak Joshi Rejoins Saffron Party Within A Year

Budhni (Madhya Pradesh): BJP-turned-Congress leader and former minister Deepak Joshi on Thursday went back to the saffron party at a meeting in Madhya Pradesh's Budhni in the presence of Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

BJP has nominated Ramakant Bhargava for the November 13 bypoll in Budhni in the Sehore district. The seat was vacated by Chouhan, who won from the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat earlier this year and subsequently became the Union minister.

In the run-up to the 2023 assembly polls, Joshi had resigned from the BJP and joined the Congress.

Joshi, son of the former chief minister late Kailash Joshi, won from Bagli seat for the first time in 2003 as a BJP candidate and later contested successfully from Hatpiplya seat in Dewas district in 2008 and 2013, sources close to him said.

He had also served as a minister in the then CM Chouhan's cabinet till 2018. However, he lost the elections in 2018 from Hatpiplya to Congress' Manoj Choudhary.

Choudhary was among over 20 MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia who rocked the Congress boat in March 2020 by switching over to the BJP and causing the fall of the Kamal Nath government. Choudhary won the subsequent bypoll and also in the 2023 assembly elections. 

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