Veteran JMM leader Simon Marandi joins BJP

RANCHI: Three former ministers and an ex-MLA joined the BJP along with their followers here today.

JMM's Simon Marandi, JDU's Gopal Krishna Patar and Dulal Bhuyan of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) were embraced by former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda, ex-Assembly speaker C P Singh and several other BJP leaders at the party office, party's state unit spokesman Pradip Sinha said in a press release.

"I am happy to join the BJP ... as Jharkhand cannot be developed by regional parties," Marandi, who recently announced that he was leaving JMM to join the BJP, said after joining the saffron party.

One of the early leaders of JMM, Marandi had quit the party earlier too to join the Congress before coming back to the Shibu Soren party.

He was recently sacked from the Hemant Soren Cabinet for reported dissent.

Former president of Janata Dal United's Jharkhand unit and a minister in the erstwhile Arjun Munda government, Gopal Krishna Patar, known as Raja Peter, too joined BJP along with others.

"I have the experience working with the BJP during the (Arjun Munda-led) alliance government and the party can lead with its policies, principles and discipline," Patar, the sitting MLA from Tamar, said.

Dulal Bhuyan, ex-JMM leader and a minister in the erstwhile Shibu Soren government, quit Babulal Marandi's Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (Prajatantrik) recently to join BJP.

"We have full faith in the leadership of the BJP," Bhuyan said.

Former MLA Gulshan Ajmani and former deputy mayor of Ranchi and JVM leader Ajay Nath Shah Deo also joined the saffron outfit.