Former Congress leader Kripashankar Singh, who was the minister of state for home in the previous Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra, joined the BJP on Wednesday.
Mr Singh, who joined the BJP in presence of state unit chief Chandrakant Patil and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, had also served as the Mumbai Congress chief during 2008-2012.
He had resigned from the Congress in the run-up to the 2019 state Assembly elections and there had been hints ever since that he would be joining the BJP.
Mr Singh's entry to the BJP comes ahead of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections slated next year, for which BJP has already launched the 'Mission 2022'' drive with a resolve to defeat ruling Shiv Sena.
The BJP had earlier targeted Singh, who had been linked to several cases of corruption as well as allegations of holding assets disproportionate to known sources of income.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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