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Samajwadi Party leaders head for Congress in UP

Less than 24 hours after the AICC session in New Delhi, several leaders from various political parties in Uttar Pradesh including former Union minister Ajay Singh joined the Congress today along with their supporters.

They included Samajwadi Party's national executive member and former Bulandshahar zilla parishad chairman K K Sharma, Kisan Kamgar Party leader and former member of Parliament Harpal Singh Pawar, and Samajwadi Party's All India Minority Front chairman S M Asif.

Welcoming them, Congress spokesperson Anil Shastri said a wave has started in Uttar Pradesh in favour of the Congress. More and more people who left the party at different times have started returning to it, he said.

UPCC president Salman Khurshid said minorities have realised that their interests could only be protected by the Congress better than anybody else. The party would welcome all those who were committed to secularism and welfare of weaker sections, he said.

Haryana PCC president Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the joining of these leaders today would have a positive impact on the Congress in his state as well.

A jubilant crowd assembled at the AICC and shouted slogans in support of the Congress and its president Sonia Gandhi on the occasion of these leaders joining the party.

UNI

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