Ramkrishna Kusmaria, former BJP MP and senior Madhya Pradesh leader, likely to join Congress on February 8

Ramkrishna Kusmaria, former BJP MP and senior Madhya Pradesh leader, is likely to join the Congress on February 8. According to reports, Kusmaria may join the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh in the presence of Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi in Bhopal. He was the member of Lok Sabha from Damoh constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 1991 to 1999 and went on to win Khajuraho seat in 2004. He is also a former state agriculture minister. The disgruntled leader also met Babulal Gaur, another BJP dissident, recently. Gaur was the chief minister of the state between the period of 2004 and 2005.

Earlier, Kusmaria claimed that he was offered a Congress ticket for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from the Bundelkhand region. The saffron party is facing a lot of trouble in Madhya Pradesh due to the disenchantment of several senior party leaders. Not only Kusmaria and Gaur, but Sartaj Singh, Kusuk Mehdele and Raghunandan Sharma have been at the loggerheads with the state party leadership. Sartaj Singh even deserted the party and joined the Congress just ahead of the Assembly elections but lost the polls from Hoshangabad Assembly seat.

It was also alleged that Kusmaria was instrumental in the defeats of two BJP candidates in Damoh and Pathariya Assembly seats. Kusmaria also claimed that Chief Minister Kamal Nath congratulated him after BJP's rout in the Bundelkhand region and also added that the CM has offered him a ticket from the Congress party but he is still undecided about it. The BJP lost the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections last year after 15 years of power since 2003. Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the chief minister of the state from 2005 to 2018. However, the BJP's vote share was more than the Congress party in the elections.