Shimla, Apr 27 (IANS): Singhi Ram, a six-time Congress legislator from Himachal Pradesh, on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here.

Ram was once considered close to Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and belonged to his stronghold Rampur assembly constituency.

"A political party always gets benefit with the joining of a leader of the other party. We will definitely get some advantage with the joining of Singhi Ram in the BJP," Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj told the media here.

In the 2007 Assembly polls, Nand Lal, an officer who was part of then Congress President Sonia Gandhi's security cover, got a Congress ticket from Rampur, replacing Ram.

Lal won and also got elected in two consecutive Assembly polls in 2012 and 2017.

Ram, a Dalit leader, was arrested in 2008 for procuring a fake school leaving certificate for his daughter from the state education board.