By IANS,
Kolkata : Former central minister Tapan Sikdar formally rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday and will contest the Lok Sabha election from his old constituency Dum Dum in West Bengal.
Sikdar, who quit the party in 2005 over differences with the state leadership, returned to the BJP with his loyalists in the presence of its prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani at a workers convention here.
State party chief Satyabrata Mukherjee welcomed Sikdar, a former West Bengal BJP chief, into the party.
“There was some discord between him and the party. We are sorry for that. He is also sorry. We are welcoming him back,” Mukherjee said.
Sikdar was the minister of state in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government from 1999 to 2004 during which period he handled portfolios such as communications, IT, chemicals and fertilisers.
“He will be in the fray from Dum Dum,” state BJP general secretary Rahul Sinha told IANS.