Jaipur, May 20 (IANS): With Rajasthan set to go to the polls this year-end, the cycle of homecoming of rebel leaders has started.
On Friday, former Union minister Subhash Maharia, who had jumped ship from the BJP to the Congress in 2016, returned to the saffron camp along with former IPS officers Gopal Meena, Ramdev Singh Khairwa, former IAS officer P.R. Meena, and Narsi Kirad at the state BJP headquarters here.
After joining the BJP, Mahariya said: "I am feeling very happy to be back in my family again. I have rejoined as a BJP worker. Whatever responsibility the party gives me, I will try to fulfil it."
A minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Maharia was elected to the Lok Sabha thrice -- 1998, 1999 and 2004.
However, after his loss in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP denied him a ticket in 2014. After quitting the party in 2016, Maharia had contested against the BJP on a Congress ticket in 2019.