Neeraj Shekhar joins BJP

Neeraj Shekhar, who resigned as Rajya Sabha MP and from the Samajwadi Party on Monday, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday.

Twice elected to Lok Sabha from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh and still had more than a year in Rajya Sabha, the 50-year-old son of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar joined BJP in the presence of its Working President J P Nadda.

"I joined BJP as working with the party where I was in (SP) was getting difficult of late. I believed that I should work under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah if I want to work for the development of the nation," Shekhar told a press conference at the party headquarters.

"I want to thank PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda for their blessings. I would also like to thank Piyush Goyal ji for helping me and talking to the central authorities," he added.

Shekhar met Modi and Shah this morning.

Welcoming Shekhar, Senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav said he has long parliamentary experience and had resigned when he still had more than a year of his Rajya Sabha term. "He has voluntarily resigned and joined BJP. On the behalf of BJP we welcome Neeraj ji."

Speculations were rife over Shekhar joining BJP since yesterday and these were further fuelled after he was spotted with Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur in the Parliament premises earlier today.

( With inputs from ANI )