India, March 10 -- In a jolt to the Congress party ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, several Congress leaders in Rajasthan, including former ministers Rajendra Yadav and Lal Chand Kataria, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday.

Former Congress MLAs Ricchpal Mirdha, Vijaypal Mirdha and Khiladi Bairwa, former independent MLA Alok Beniwal, Suresh Chaudhary, Rampal Sharma and Riju Jhunjhunwala among other leaders also joined the BJP in presence of chief minister Bhajanlal Sharma, state BJP president C P Joshi and Union minister Bhupendra Yadav at the state BJP office in Jaipur.

The development came days after former Congress minister and tribal leader Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya joined the BJP on February 20. Malviya has...