Former Forest Minister tilting towards Mayawati

     Raipur, January 15, 2009: Former Forest Minister and a prominent Satnami leader of Chhattisgarh Dehru Prasad Dhritlehere was contemplating to join Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati.

     “I have been approached by some of the BSP leaders and I had given them a condition and if that is fulfilled I will join the Bahujan Samaj Party,” Dhritlehere told ChhattisgarhTopNews.Com here today.

     Dhritlehere is a four time MLA and a prominent leader of Satnami community, who was the Ministers for four times and had the portfolios like Revenue, Endowment and Religious Affairs in 1993, Health and Family Welfare in 1995, Civil Aviation and Public Grievances in 1997, all under undivided Madhya Pradesh Government and Forest and Environment in 2000 under Chhattisgarh government during Congress regimes.

     This time he contested from Nawagarh SC reserved seat in Durg District and defeated from Dayal Das Baghel of BJP by a margin of 6507 votes.

     The Congress leader had also favoured to contest from Janjgir if given ticket from the BSP in the Lok Sabha election.

     He said in an exclusive interview, he was ready to join the BSP if he was given proper weightage like making him the state In Charge of BSP in place of Sewaram.

      Some BSP leaders had expressed the desire to take him into the party fold and in return he had told them of his condition and if that was fulfilled he was ready to join them, Dhritlehere said.

     Since he is a prominent Satnami leader, the main opposition Congress could be pushed to a difficult situation in the coming elections if he sided with Mayawati.