Bhopal, Apr 30 (IANS): On a day when senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in Madhya Pradesh to campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, a sitting party MLA, Ramniwas Rawat, switched sides to the BJP.

Rawat (64) was one of the prominent Congress leaders in the Gwalior-Chambal region, who won six Assembly elections from Vijaypur between 1990 and 2023.

The Vijaypur Assembly segment falls under the Morena Lok Sabha constituency, the home district of BJP veteran and Assembly Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar.

Polling in Morena and Bhind Lok Sabha seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region along with Vidisha, Bhopal, and two other seats will be held in the third phase on May 7.

Rawat is the second sitting Congress MLA to quit the party and join the BJP since the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections on March 16. On March 29, Congress MLA from the Amarwada Assembly segment in Chhindwara, Kamlesh Shah, who was considered close to ex-CM Kamal Nath, joined the BJP.

Sources told IANS that Rawat was upset with the state Congress leadership under Jitu Patwari.

Taking a jibe at the Congress, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, "We welcome Ramniwas Rawat into the BJP family. No one wants to stay in Congress anymore."

The fresh jolt came a day after the Congress candidate from the Indore Lok Sabha seat, Akshay Kantilal Bam, withdrew his nomination, giving almost a walkover to the BJP candidate and sitting MP, Shankar Lalwani.