Neeraj Shekhar, son of former PM, Chandra Shekhar joins BJP

New Delhi, July. 16 (HS): Neeraj Shekhar, the son of former Prime minister Chandra Shekhar,  on Tuesday  officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of the party’s general secretary Bhupinder Yadav and met the party’s Working President JP Nadda.

Shekhar joined the saffron party today, a day after quitting as a leader of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and a member of Rajya Sabha (RS) despite over a one year term left .

Speculations were rife over Shekhar joining the BJP which  were fuelled  today with him spotted earlier today with  the Minister of state (MoS) for Finance, Anurag Thakur in the Parliament premises.

Shekhar was also seen with Union Home minister and BJP president  Amit Shah among other senior leaders from the saffron  party just after putting in his papers quitting as a Rajya Sabha member.

The former SP leader had also met Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu and handed his resignation  to inform him about his decision to retire voluntarily and was not under any compulsion.

 According to BJP sources, Shekhar is likely to be nominated as  the party candidate for  Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Shekhar had been contesting Lok Sabha polls from his father and former PM Chandra Shekhar’s pocket borough, Ballia (UP) and won twice in 2007 and 2009 but lost in 2014. The SP then sent him to the Rajya Sabha and  was not fielded in the recent Lok Sabha polls by the party.