Cong leader Manvendra Singh quits party, joins BJP

Manavendra Singh, a former Madhya Pradesh Public Relations Minister in then chief minister Digvijay Singh's government and an independent MLA, today joined the BJP here.
Manvendra, who is an Independent MLA from Maharajpur assembly seat in Chhattarpur district joined the BJP in the presence of state BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Welcoming him to the BJP, Tomar said that the party would gain from his long political experience in Madhya Pradesh, even as the MP CM issued a statement to welcome him into the party fold.
In 2008, the Congress had denied ticket to Manvendra, who is popularly known as "Bhanwar Raja" in his area, after which he contested the polls as an independent candidate and defeated BJP candidate Pushpendra Nath alias Guddan Pathak by a margin of 1391 votes.

In that election Uma Bharti's Janshakti Party candidate Virendra Chourasia polled 12,931 and secured third place in the polls, while the Congress candidate Birsingh Rajput lost his deposit, polling merely 9919 votes.