Madhavrao Scindia's friend quits BJP, returns to Congress

Bhopal

Balendu Shukla, a former Madhya Pradesh minister and childhood friend of late Congress veteran Madhavrao Scindia, quit the BJP on Friday and rejoined the Congress.

His exit from the BJP, coming just a couple of months after Jyotiraditya Scindia's entry into the BJP, would help the Congress in the Gwalior-Chambal, claim the party sources.

Shukla re-joined the Congress on Friday afternoon at a small gathering at former Chief Minister Kamal Nath's residence.

He had felt slighted in the Congress with the ascendance of Jyotiraditya Scindia after Madhavrao Scindia's death.

Shukla, the PHE minister in the then Congress government in the 1980s, was among those Jyotiraditya Scindia had "antagonised with his brash ways", say party insiders.

He started distancing himself from the palace, quit the Congress in 2009 and finally moved into the BJP after a brief stint with the BSP.

Shukla was marginalised following Jyotiraditya Scindia's entry into the BJP and widely expected to leave it. With his return to the parent party, Shukla could be a Congress candidate from Gwalior East Assembly constituency in the by-elections.