Bharatiya Janata Party MP Rahul Kaswan, who represents Rajasthan’s Churu Lok Sabha constituency in the Lok Sabha, on Monday switched sides to join the Congress.

Kaswan joined the Congress after he was denied a ticket by the saffron party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“Due to political reasons, I am resigning from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the post of the Member of Parliament,” Kaswan said in a post on social media platform X. He also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President JP Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah, saying that they gave him the chance to serve his constituency for ten years.

The BJP has fielded paralympic gold medalist Devendra Jhajharia from the Churu Lok Sabha seat in place of Kaswan for the upcoming polls.

BJP leader and Rahul Kaswan’s father Ram Singh Kaswan won the Lok Sabha seat from Churu in 2004 and 2009. Rahul Kaswan won from the constituency in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

On Monday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge welcomed Kaswan to the party.