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Two Congressmen join BJP

Former Union minister from Karnataka M Rajasekara Murthy and former Orissa MP Patitapaban Pradhan, both from the Congress, Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Murthy, a sitting Rajya Sabha member, has been a Congress leader for the past 49 years. In his resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he said, ''The recent developments in this century-old organisation after you (Sonia was installed president) are causing great damage to the party and jeopardising the interest of the nation.''

The internal democracy in the party was given a quite burial and she was surrounded by a coterie of sycophants, he said in a letter released to the press.

He took exception to the manner in which the Karnataka unit president was dismissed. He also criticised the Congress move to bail out the Rabri Devi government in Bihar.

The resignation letter further alleged that the Congress president had joined hands with Jayalalitha to bring down the Vajpayee government, which proved ''beyond doubt that the Congress leadership has been encouraging corruption at the cost of national interest.''

Pradhan was a member of the Rajya Sabha during the Janata Party regime between 1977-82. He was imprisoned during the Emergency for 19 months, and was the general secretary of the Orissa unit. Later he joined the Utkal Congress and was with it from 1984 to 1998.

He also worked as the editor of a language daily from Sambalpur between 1984 and 1996.

UNI

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