By IANS,
Shimla : A BJP legislator in Himachal Pradesh, who has been speaking against “rampant corruption” in the state government, Tuesday quit the ruling party and joined a faction floated by dissidents ahead of the assembly polls.
Khushi Ram Balnatah resigned from the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and joined the Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) headed by former MP Maheshwar Singh.
“I have been associated with the party’s ideology since my college days in 1972. I’m taking this step with a heavy heart. The degradation in the BJP has forced me to do it,” Balnatah told reporters here.
Balnatah is a legislator from Rohru, once the pocket borough of state Congress chief Virbhadra Singh.
He said that during the BJP’s five-year regime in the state, corruption had reached its peak.
Balnatah, a loyalist of BJP Vice President Shanta Kumar, wants to contest the polls from Kasumpti in Shimla.
Himachal Pradesh goes to polls Nov 4.