After being denied ticket from Una assembly segment, Former Congress MLA and HPCC spokesperson OP Rattan has left Congress and joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Along with Rattan, all the office-bearers of the Una Block Congress also resigned and joined the TMC. Earlier, aggrieved with the ticket allotment, Rattan and the Una Block Congress had given an ultimatum till 14th October for change in the Congress candidate from Una.
While talking to the mediapersons OP Rattan said that he is dejected to leave his old party as he had served it for more then 20 years. He said that in Congress money is being preferred over dedicated party workers while allotting party tickets.
Rattan had joined Himachal politics in 1993 after quitting the office of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. Since he belonged to the Mehatpur area of Himachal, Rattan decided to return to parent state and join politics under the aegis of Beant Singh.
He got ticket from the Una Assembly constituency in 1993 despite stiff resistance of Virbhadra Singh who preferred his loyalist Varinder Gautam from the area. Rattan won with the support of Beant Singh. However, Rattan did not find favour with Virbhadra Singh.
In 1998 he quit the Congress after being denied party ticket and joined the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) headed by former Union Minister Sukh Ram. Later, he again joined the Congress, but was denied party ticket in 2003 and 2007 Assembly elections. Virbhadra had managed party ticket for Gautam in the Assembly polls.
The factional fight between the groups headed by Rattan and late Gautam led to defeat of the Congress those years from Una. Rattan was also Congress candidate for the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency in 2008 parliamentary by-elections.
