With the tempo of urban local body (ULB) polls gaining pace, two bigwigs BJP and Congress are now busy taking members of the other party into their folds to show which way the poll wind is blowing.      After suffering the switch-setbacks for some days, Congress received a shot in the arm on Tuesday as a number of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) leaders along with the  leaders and activists  of Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad ( ABVP)- BJP’s student  wing - joined the Congress.

 In a programme organised at the State Congress office, UKD leader Rajendra Gairola, UKD vice- president Surendra Singh, former block president of the same party Bhupendra Rana, district UKD vice- president Deepak Negi and district secretary UKD Jitendra Saklani joined the party. Besides, Brijesh Kumar, the university representative Rishikesh PG College and ABVP leader Ravi Kumar along with many other ABVP activists joined the party on the day. Welcoming the new entrants into the party folds, the state Congress president Pritam Singh said that many prominent UKD leaders and ABVP members from Rishikesh and Yamkeshwar have joined the Congress.

“The joining spree indicates that the people of the state have made up their minds to go for a change at the ULB polls,” he said.  Later in the day, many BJP workers from wards 34 and 55  under Dharampur Assembly segment  led by Om Sharma also switched to the Congress. Singh said that they would further strengthen the party and ensure the victory of the Congress mayoral candidate Dinesh Agarwal.

The State Congress vice- president Surya Kant Dhasmana, former MLA Rajkumar, Mahanagar president Lal Chand Sharma and  state Congress secretary Azad Ali were among the  senior party leaders present on the occasion.