Former Congress MP, Karnataka leader K C Ramamurthy joins BJP
New Delhi, Oct 22: Days after quitting the Congress and his Rajya Sabha membership, Karnataka leader K C Ramamurthy joined the BJP on Tuesday, praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
He claimed that there was a conflict between what his "conscience" wanted to do and what the Congress asked its members to do in Parliament, leading to his decision to quit the party on October 16.
Modi is taking many good decisions for the country, he added.
BJP general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Arun Singh, besides the party's Karnataka unit president Pralhad Joshi, were present at the press conference as Ramamurthy was inducted into the saffron organisation.
Ramamurthy later met BJP working president J P Nadda.
The BJP is likely to win the Rajya Sabha bypoll to the seat vacated by him. The party may field him on its ticket from Karnataka where it enjoys numerical advantage over its rivals.
The BJP has launched a concerted drive since it came back to power in May to win over Rajya Sabha members of rival parties in its bid to negate the advantage the opposition had in the House.
In the recent past, Bhubaneswar Kalita and Sanjay Singh, both from the Congress, had resigned from the upper house to join it.
Neeraj Shekhar, Surendra Singh Nagar and Sanjay Seth had recently quit the Samajwadi Party and given up their Rajya Sabha membership to join the BJP. They were later re-elected to the Upper House on BJP tickets, boosting the strength of the ruling party in the Rajya Sabha where it lacks majority.
In June this year, four Telugu Desam Party members from Rajya Sabha had joined the BJP.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Mysterious blast outside house in J-K's Samba, no one injured
Jammu (PTI): A mysterious blast occurred in a village in the Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir early Monday, officials said.
The blast took place near the main gate of the residence of former sarpanch Jai Ram Sharma at Gawala Talab, some 10 km from the International Border in the Ghagwal sector around 2 am, the officials said.
They said the blast uprooted the gate and a portion of the boundary wall but caused no casualty.
A team of forensic experts visited the site and took samples from the scene to ascertain the cause of the explosion, they said.
Police have registered an FIR, the officials said, adding senior officers are on the scene and further investigation is on.
