2nd Cong MLA joins BJP in Gujarat in 2 days, another likely to follow suit
Sixteen lawmakers have quit the Congress since December 2017 when it put up its best electoral performance since 1995 in Gujarat
Congress lawmaker Bhagwan Barad has joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) weeks before the assembly elections in the state next month and another party colleague was expected to follow suit on Thursday. Mohansinh Rathwa, a 10-time lawmaker, defected from the Congress to the BJP a day earlier on Tuesday.
Sixteen lawmakers have quit the Congress since December 2017 when it put up its best electoral performance since 1995 in Gujarat, winning 77 out of 182 seats. The Congress’s strength in the state assembly has since reduced to 60 while the BJP’s has gone up to 111 from 99. The BJP has been in power in the state for 27 years.
Barad called himself a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s politics of development. “Whatever responsibilities the party [BJP] will entrust, I shall fulfil them with utmost sincerity...The entire Ahir community has been associated with me and my family and also other communities,” Barad told journalists after joining the BJP on Wednesday.
In the 2019 by-elections to seven assembly seats, the BJP fielded five former Congress legislators. The BJP won four and the Congress three. Alpesh Thakor, who defected to the BJP after winning the 2017 assembly election, lost to Congress’s Raghu Desai.
In 2020 by-elections to eight seats, BJP fielded six candidates who switched from Congress. The BJP won all eight seats. Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who was the Congress’s working president, also joined the BJP earlier this year and is likely to contest his first assembly election.
In August 2017, 14 Congress lawmakers switched to the BJP months ahead of the assembly elections that year.
Yamal Vyas, a BJP spokesperson, said they did has not approached any Congress legislators to join the party. “These Congressmen were unhappy and upset with the party’s antipathy and its disinterest towards Gujarat and those who wanted to contribute towards the development of the state. The BJP has given no assurance of any kind to any of the Congress leaders who have joined us.”
The BJP seeks to improve its chances in Gujarat’s tribal areas with Rathwa’s induction. Gujarat’s Cabinet includes tribal ministers like Naresh Patel, Jitu Chaudhary, who also defected from the Congress. Twenty-seven assembly seats are reserved for tribals in Gujarat. In 2017, the Congress won 15 of them and the BJP nine.
Manish Doshi, the Gujarat Congress spokesperson, asked what did not their party give to the defectors. “Despite getting positions and privileges, the legislators defected. What can you expect from them? Obviously what we could not give them were ministerial berths.”