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Tushar Gandhi joins Congress

Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, has left the Samajwadi Party and joined the Congress.

All India Congress Committee general secretary Pranab Mukherjee formally welcomed Tushar to the party today.

Tushar told the media at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi that he had decided to quit the SP as his party leaders were helping the Sangh Parivar. ''I would like to be nowhere near the Sangh Parivar,'' he said.

Tushar had unsuccessfully contested the February 1998 Lok Sabha elections on an SP ticket from north-west Bombay.

Prahlad Dora, Bharatiya Jananta Party leader and former deputy speaker of the Orissa assembly, also joined the Congress in the presence of state Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang.

Dora said the BJP did not want to prevent atrocities on scheduled castes and scheduled tribes thus forcing him to quit the party.

UNI

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