Himachal Assembly Poll: AICC member joins BJP

Opposition Congress former MLA and Congresss AICC member Rakesh Kalia today joined ruling BJP after he was denied party ticket from Chintpurni Assembly Election by the party. In a major set back  to Congress  three-time MLA of the party and former secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), joined the BJP on Tuesday. Mr Kalia have lost last Assembly Election from Chintpurni however  Congress has made young face Chaitanya Sharma its party candidate from here. Angered by this, Kalia left the Congress and joined the BJP. After joining BJP, he consulted the top leaders of the party. Rakesh Kalia has been MLA from Chintpurni assembly seat once from and Gagret seat twice. Rakesh Kalia had a meeting with his supporters recently after not getting a Congress ticket from Gagret. Kalia was in touch with BJP leaders for several days. MLA Kalia, who became an MLA for the first time in 2003, has been counted among the fiercest leaders of the Congress. In 2003, he contested for the first time on a Congress ticket and won. In 2007, Rakesh Kalia won the triangular contest by a margin of 16135 votes and became MLA for the second time in a row.In 2012, the Gagret seat was reserved. After this Rakesh Kalia had to change his constituency. Then he contested from Chintpurni on Congress ticket. From here also Kalia managed to win the election. Kalia, who was CPS in the Virbhadra government, was also the Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) in the former Virbhadra government. During this tenure, he was the secretary of AICC. During this, he also held the post of Congress co-in-charge of Madhya Pradesh.  In 2017 Rakesh Kalia contested from Gagret, but lost the election to Rajesh Thakur of BJP. This time Congress cut the ticket of Rakesh Kalia.