New Delhi, Jan. 18 (PTI): Veteran Congress leader Narain Dutt Tiwari, who has been chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and later Uttarakhand, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of BJP president Amit Shah here on Wednesday.
Though Tiwari, 91, is no longer very active politically, his joining the saffron party is being seen as a boost to it ahead of the Uttarakhand Assembly polls on February 15 because of his vast experience and stature in Uttarakhand.
He joined the party along with his son Rohit Shekhar, who has been trying to establish himself politically after Tiwari accepted him as his biological son following a long paternity battle.
Tiwari is among the tallest leaders to have come out of Uttarakhand and was the chief minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh four times before moving on to become Uttarakhand’s chief minister.
He has remained a Congressman all his life except for a brief period when he, along with several leaders proclaiming allegiance to Sonia Gandhi, broke away to form the All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) when P.V. Narasimha Rao headed the Congress and Sonia had not joined active politics.
The Congress has been deserted by a number of senior leaders in Uttarakhand and BJP has awarded many of them with party tickets to contest the Assembly polls. It is yet to announce its nominees for a few seats and it remains to be seen if it accommodates any kin of Tiwari.
Earlier, in The Telegraph:
• DNA test pins down N D Tiwari as biological father of Rohit Shekhar
