Gangtok: Members of the dissolved Sikkim unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of its former president K C Pradhan have resigned en bloc from the party to join hands with the Congress.

Pradhan along with the rest of the members of BJP's disbanded state committee is now in New Delhi to negotiate their merger with All India Congress Committee (AICC) leaders, sources close to him informed on September 20.

Shortly before leaving for New Delhi, Pradhan said in a statement, "We have resigned from the primary membership of BJP and decided to merge en bloc with Congress under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi with the one-point agenda of protection of Article 371(F) of Constitution which provides special safeguards to Sikkim."

According to Pradhan, the Pawan Chamling-led Sikkim Democratic Front government in the state was "eroding the spirit" of Article 371(F) of the Constitution and breeding a sense of insecurity among the different communities in the state about their political rights.

"But our complaints and criticisms regarding this always fell on deaf ears with the BJP leadership ignoring them on the same old pretext of SDF being part of the ruling NDA (National Democratic Alliance) at the Centre," Pradhan said.

This was primarily the reason why the state BJP unit members resigned from the party and decided to join the Congress.

PTI