Congress gets boost ahead of LS polls; Danish Ali, Pappu Yadav, Lal Singh join party

New Delhi [India], March 21 : In a boost for Congress ahead of Lok Sabha polls, a sitting MP, two former MPs and a sitting MLA today joined the party at the party headquarters on Wednesday.
Danish Ali, who won the last Lok Sabha polls from Amroha as a BSP candidate; former MPs Pappu Yadav and Lal Singh and BJP whip in Jharkhand assembly Jai Prakash Patel joined the Congress.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said joining of leaders from other parties will be a continuous process "as winds of change have started blowing".
He pointed out that two sittings BJP MPs, one each from Rajasthan and Haryana, had joined the party earlier and "more leaders were to follow".
Pappu Yadav merged his regional political party Jan Adhikar Party and Lal Singh merged his Dogra Swabhiman Sanghathan with the Congress.
The three leaders were inducted into the party during separate press conferences held at the AICC headquarters here today.
Speaking on the occasion, five-time former MP and former Bihar MLA, Pappu Yadav said he was always influenced "by the secular ideology of the Congress".
Yadav said he had always felt ideologically closer to the Congress and felt happy merging his party with the Congress today.
"One thing I know is that I was always with the identity and ideology of Congress...The trust shown by Rahul Gandhi and the blessings by Priyanka Gandi Vadra are enough for me, I don't want anything else. Along with Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad and the Congress, we will try to stop the BJP in Bihar till our last breath..." Yadav said.
"If anyone has won the hearts of people in India, it is Rahul Gandhi and people love him. He has also raised the concerns of OBCs by raising the issue of caste census," the former MP added.
Lal Singh, who has been a two-time former Congress MP from Udhampur parliamentary constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, said that returning to the Congress was like "coming back to his home".
Danish Ali said the country was standing at the crossroads and there was a battle between two ideologies.
"On the one side, there is a divisive ideology and on the other hand there is ideology represented by the Congress fighting for the rights of those exploited and marginalized," he said, adding that the choice was clear for him and he decided to join the Congress.
Jai Prakash Patel, a sitting MLA and party whip of the BJP, said that under the present circumstances in the county, Congress is the only alternative for the nation.
Meanwhile, All India Kisan Congress today hailed the five guarantees promised by the party and said these will go a long way in ameliorating the plight of farmers in the country.
Briefing reporters after the meeting of the national executive of the All India Kisan Congress here today, its chairman Sukhpal Singh Khaira said that a unanimous resolution was passed thanking the Congress president Mallkarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi for these guarantees.
Khaira said that the first guarantee of legal status to MSP under the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations will fulfill the long-pending demand of farmers from across the country.
In order to address the loan waiver issue, he said, the party has announced a guarantee to create a permanent 'Agriculture Loan Waiver Commission' to waive off the loans of farmers and determine the amount of loan waiver. He said the commission will work out how to provide debt relief to the farmers.
The Kisan Congress chairman alleged that the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Bima Yojana was "scam in its current shape".
He said the party has guaranteed payment directly into the bank account of farmers within 30 days in case of crop loss by changing the insurance plan.
He also said that there will be a guarantee to make a new import-export policy keeping the interest of farmers in mind.
The fifth guarantee, he said, was about taking various agriculture-related equipment like tractors, farm machinery, and inputs like seeds, fertilisers and insecticides out of the purview of the GST.
Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. Assembly polls will also be held in four states.