Rajkumar Rinwa, Dr CS Baid join Congress ahead of Lok Sabha elections 2019

Jaipur: Cabinet minister in the previous BJP government – Rajkumar Rinwa – has joined the Congress. Rinwa was the target of the Congress in Rajasthan for the alleged corruption in mining. Rinwa was the mining minister in the previous government. He took the primary membership of the Congress on Thursday.

He joined the party in the presence of chief minister Ashok Gehlot and deputy minister Sachin Pilot during a public rally in Churu. The Congress had cornered Rinwa accusing him of his involvement in the mining scams during the Vasundhara Raje government. Gehlot, Pilot and many other state Congress leaders had staged protests demanding a CBI probe. The probe is still pending with Lokayukta.

It was homecoming for Rinwa as he was earlier with the Congress and then joined the BJP. When he didn’t get a Congress ticket in 2003, he fought as an independent candidate and won. He later fought assembly elections on a BJP ticket in 2008 and 2013. He was denied a ticket in 2018 assembly elections. He fought as an independent and lost.

Another leader who returned to the Congress on Thursday was Dr CS Baid. He had fought the assembly elections as an independent when the Congress denied him a ticket. During the public rally in Churu, Subhash Garg announced his return to the party.