New Delhi, Mar 7 (Agencies): In a setback to the Congress, senior Congress leader Jagdambika Pal resigned from the Lok Sabha and quit the primary membership of the party on Friday.

“I have decided to leave the Congress, I will decide on the future course of action after talking to people in my constituency,” Pal. He represented Domariyaganj constituency of Uttar Pradesh in the outgoing Lok Sabha.

Pal's announcement came days after he went public with his anguish, saying that he was being 'humiliated' by the party. He also accused the Congress leadership of not giving him due importance.

Reports have suggested that pal wanted the party to send him to the Rajya Sabha. After he sensed that the party was cold to the idea, Jagadambika Pal decided to chart his own path to save his political future.

There are strong indications that he may also choose to go in the direction the wind is blowing and join the BJP.

Pal was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for 3 days from 21 February 1998 to 23 February 1998.

Purandeswari, hubby to join BJP

VISAKHAPATNAM, Mar 7 (TOI): In what will be a prize catch for the BJP, Union minister of state for commerce and industry D Purandeswari and her MLA husband Venkateswara Rao are all set to join the right wing party.

After a meeting with their followers in Vizag on Thursday, Purandeswari said she has decided to join the BJP. The couple is scheduled to meet senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj in Delhi on Friday where the formal announcement is expected to be made.

The daughter of former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder NT Rama Rao, Purandeswari is also the sister-in-law of TDP president Chandrababu Naidu and the two have been engaged in a bitter battle to inherit NTR's legacy. Purandeswari was never part of the TDP and made her entry into politics by joining the Congress.

Purandeswari got elected to the Lok Sabha from Bapatla in 2004 and was immediately inducted into the Manmohan Singh ministry as a minister of state. She was reelected from Visakhapatnam in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and continued to remain a minister in the UPA government's second term.

'Support to BJP unconditional'

Incidentally, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had gone out of her way to give Purandeswari the Lok Sabha seat for a second time. After the Bapatla Lok Sabha seat got reserved for SCs in the delimitation exercise before the 2009 polls, she was given the Vizag seat and T Subbarami Reddy, the Congress member representing the city, was shifted to the Rajya Sabha. For the 2014 elections, both Purandeswari and Subbarami Reddy have been staking claim for the Vizag Congress ticket.

The Union minister is expected to be given the Vizag Lok Sabha seat by the right wing party and her followers claim that the fact that the constituency is urban coupled with the popularity of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi should ensure her victory. Modi is scheduled to campaign in Vizag for Purandeswari sometime next month.

According to sources, the BJP has also promised Purandeswari's husband D Venkateswara Rao the Parchuru Assembly seat that he presently represents as a Congress member.

The BJP also feels that the entry of the politician couple into their fold will enhance the prospects of its revival in the Seemandhra region. Purandeswari and her husband had resigned from the Congress and she from the Union ministry on February 18 soon after the Lok Sabha passed the AP Reorganization Bill, 2014. However, her resignation from the UPA ministry and party is yet to be accepted. Once she formally joins the BJP, both the resignations are likely to be accepted.

BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu is said to have played a key role in persuading NTR's daughter and son-in-law to join the party, according to sources.

Hours before the announcement , many local Congress MLAs such as Dronamraju Srinivas and V Vijay Prasad met and urged her not to leave the Congress. However, she told them that she had already made up her mind. "I wanted to take my supporters in Vizag into confidence before I announced my decision . Various views have been expressed in the meeting. Though painful, I have decided to leave the Congress ," she said.

Political analysts said that NTR's daughter would have surely lost if she had contested on a Congress ticket .

When asked about the date she would join the BJP, Purandeswari said she was going to Delhi on Friday. "Let me first meet BJP leaders," she said and added that her joining the BJP would be unconditional . "I believe the Congress is toying with the idea of taking the support of TRS in Telangana and the YSR Congress in Seemandhra in case they do not get adequate number of seats in the Lok Sabha ," she said.

Incidentally, Venkateswar Rao had earlier been part of the BJP and worked as a vice-president of the state unit.