Former Union Minister and ex-president of Madhya Pradesh Congress, Suresh Pachouri, has embraced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today. In the Congress government, he had handled the responsibilities of Minister of State for various ministries. He has been a Rajya Sabha MP for four consecutive terms. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, welcomed Suresh Pachouri at the BJP office in Bhopal.
Madhya Pradesh BJP President V. D. Sharma called Suresh Pachouri a 'saint' in the politics of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. He expressed that such a revered figure had no place left in Congress, hence he felt the need to contribute under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and joined the BJP today.
Several other Congress leaders in line to join...
Accompanying Suresh Pachouri in his switch to the BJP were former MP from Dhar, Gajendra Singh Rajukhedi; former MLA from Indore, Sanjay Shukla; former MLA from Pipariya, Vishal Patel; Arjun Paliya; and the former state president of the National Students' Union of India (NSUI), Atul Sharma.
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Pachouri's Political Journey Through the Years
Suresh Pachouri began his political life as a young Congress activist in 1972 and became the state youth Congress president in 1984. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990, 1996, and 2002. As a Union Minister of State, he has overseen Defence, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, and Parliamentary Affairs. He also served as president of the grassroots level organization of the Congress party, the Congress Seva Dal.
Two Electoral Battles, Two Defeats
In his political career, Suresh Pachouri has fought elections only twice. In 1999, he challenged BJP's Uma Bharti for the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat and lost by over 160,000 votes. Additionally, he contested against Surendra Patwa, minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government and nephew of the late CM Sunder Lal Patwa, in the 2013 Assembly elections from Bhojpur but was defeated.
