By IANS,
Ranchi : Jharkhand Mahila Congress former president Pratibha Pandey Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), expressing anger at the Congress fielding Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay’s younger brother for Hatia assembly by-poll scheduled for June 12.
“I had to quit the Congress as Subodh Kanat Sahay has hijacked the party. He unilaterally decided one year ago about the party candidate for the Hatia by-poll,” Pandey told reporters here after meeting Chief Minister Arjun Munda.
Pandey, who is the chairperson of the Jharkhand State Social Welfare Board, alleged that the union minister ensured party ticket to his younger brother Sunil Sahay for the by-poll and treated his colleagues in the Congress as “small-level leaders”.
“We have spent 32 years in the party and it is very sad to hear such comments from him,” she said.
Earlier in 2009 assembly elections, the Congress denied Pandey a party ticket from Hatia and instead repeated its sitting legislator Gopal Nath Sahdeo.
Sahdeo died in 2010, necessitating a by-poll. The selection of Sunil Sahay as the Congress candidate for the by-election has dealt a final blow to her hopes, Pandey said, forcing her to quit the Congress.
Subodh Kant Sahay is the Congress MP from the Ranchi Lok Sabha constituency.