New Delhi | Uttarakhand Congress MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari joined the BJP here on Sunday, in a setback to the grand-old party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Bhandari, a three-term Congress legislator who was also a minister in the state in the past, joined the BJP in the presence of its senior leaders, including Union Minister Piyush Goyal and the party's national general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam.

Gautam is also the BJP's in-charge for Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and BJP chief spokesperson Anil Baluni, a Rajya Sabha member who will contest his first Lok Sabha election from the Garhwal seat in Uttarakhand, were also present on the occasion.

Bhandari represented the Badrinath seat in the Uttarakhand Assembly. He is learnt to have resigned from the Congress before joining the BJP.