Karnal ex-MP Arvind Sharma joins BJP

New Delhi: Former Congress MP Arvind Sharma, who joined the BSP five years ago ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls, on Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Sharma, a former MP from Karnal in Haryana, quit the Congress to join the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) during the Assembly elections. He was defeated by BJP's Ashwani Kumar Chopra in the Lok Sabha polls of 2014.

In the 2014 Haryana Assembly polls, he was declared the Chief Ministerial candidate of the BSP but the party won only one seat. Sharma lost from both the seats he had contested. He left that party too in 2016.

The Karnal constituency, now represented by the BJP, comprises Karnal and Panipat districts and has nine Assembly segments.