Kishore Upadhyay, the former president of the Uttarakhand Congress, joined the BJP on Thursday, weeks ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections in the state.

Upadhyay joined the saffron party in front of its state election in-charge Pralhad Joshi, state party president Madan Kaushik and central minister Ajay Bhatt.

The 63-year-old was removed from all positions by the Congress for “anti-party activities” a fortnight ago after he met with senior BJP leaders from the state.

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Upadhyay met with BJP state organisational general secretary Ajeya Kumar and state election in-charge Pralhad Joshi on January 3, sparking rumours that he was on his way to the saffron party.

However, the 63-year-old denied that he had intentions of changing parties, and claimed that he was meeting with leaders of several parties to garner support for his Vanadhikar Andolan and ensure the issue figures in the 2022 polls, scheduled for February 14.

However, the Congress deemed Upadhyay to be involved with the saffron party and he was subsequently expelled from the party for six years.

“Since you had been continuously indulging in anti-party activities despite several warnings, you are hereby expelled from the primary membership of Congress party for six years with immediate effect,” said said Devendra Yadav, the Congress Uttarakhand in-charge, in a letter to Upadhyay.

Upadhyay, who served as the Congress’ state president from 2014 to 2017, had grown increasingly critical of the party of late and felt that his contribution to establishing the Congress in the state had been underestimated.

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“Harish Rawat is a senior leader, but if Harish Rawat has the highest role in establishing Congress here, then I too have a 10-20 per cent role. Everybody accepts this, even though I might not have got justice accordingly. I have established the party here… Based on my contribution should I have been a cabinet minister? Should I have been the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader or the president? Several times I was neglected for the Rajya Sabha seat. However, I am thankful to the party that they made a poor farmer’s son reach till here,” he had said, according to the Indian Express.

Before his removal, Upadhyay served as the Uttarakhand Congress Coordination Committee chairman and a member of the state Congress Core Committee and the Uttarakhand Congress Pradesh Election Committee.