BJP rebel rejoins party in Himachal

Congress leader Narinder Thakur, son of late BJP stalwart Jagdev Chand, Monday rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"I feel it's the right time to return to the party which my father served throughout his life," Narinder Thakur said at a function in Hamirpur, about 150 km from Shimla.

Narinder Thakur contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election on Congress ticket from Hamirpur and lost to BJP's Anurag Thakur.

Former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal was present at the function, party spokesman Ganesh Dutt told IANS.

Narinder Thakur's return to the BJP is seen as a major embarrassment for the Congress as Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had announced that he would be in charge of the party's campaign in Hamirpur.

The Congress has pitted Rajinder Rana, another BJP rebel, against BJP's two-time MP Anurag Thakur.

The Aam Adami Party has fielded Kamal Kanta Batra, mother of the 1999 Kargil war hero Capt Vikram Batra, from Hamirpur, a constituency home to a large number of military personnel and ex-servicemen.

The Congress has won the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat only once in the past 25 years.