Former Indian Prime Minsiter Atal Bihari Vajpayee's niece Karuna Shukla joined the Congress party causing major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] ahead of the general elections. The 63 year old Karuna was in BJP for the past 32 years and quit the party last year on October 25th.  In the presence of Congress senior leaders Janardhan Dwivedi, Motilal Vora, B K Hariprasad, Ajit Jogi, Chhattisgarh PCC chief Bhupesh Baghel and CLP leader T S Singh Dev, Karuna took the Congress flag.

Speaking after her joining, Karuna criticized BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. She also accused that after Vajpayee exist, BJP lost its credability. Karuna became MLA from BJP first in 1993 and in 2009 elections she lost to Congress men Charan Das from Korba.

Karuna also served as the national vice president of the BJP and president of the BJP Mahila Morcha.

(AW: Vamshi)