In what can be termed as a major setback for ‘visionary’ alliance of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP), the BSP candidate from Varanasi, Vijay Prakash Jaiswal has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the 2014 general election, Jaiswal, a businessman, had contested on a BSP ticket from Varanasi and lost against the then prime ministerial candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party, Narendra Modi.
Vijay Prakash Jaiswal was able to get 60,000 odd votes only against Narendra Modi, who won the seat with more than 5.80 lakh votes. On Varanasi LS seat, Modi was followed by Aam Aadmi Party’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Congress’ Ajay Rai.
Tuesday was a sterling day for the BJP cadre as expelled Trinamool Congress MP Anupam Hazra and Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s son Sujay Vikhe-Patil also joined BJP.
In the recent few days, multiple senior leaders from opposition parties have joined the BJP. Two of the biggest losers in this regard have been the Congress and TMC.
In the recent past various leaders of Mamata led party has jumped ship and joined the BJP. In a massive blow to the Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress (TMC), former party general secretary, Shankudeb Panda has reportedly joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Apart from him, veteran actor Biswajit Chatterjee and Ranjan Bhattacharya have also joined the party. They came into the BJP fold in the presence of senior BJP leader, Kailash Vijayvargiya and the former TMC leader, Mukul Roy. What must be particularly disconcerting for the TMC is the inclusion of Shankudeb Panda in the BJP.
Last year, Sunday Guardian had reported that all was not well within the TMC and that a rebellion might have been brewing within her fiefdom. It had come to light that many top TMC leaders were keen to join the BJP but were not able to do so as they felt that the West Bengal BJP leadership wouldn’t be able to protect them against Mamata’s fury. This had come from sources within both the parties. This also corroborated the claims made by the BJP in the past that several TMC leaders were ready to join the party. Recently, in January this year, senior TMC leader, Saumitra Khan joined the BJP.
The issue of leaders deserting the opposition party and joining the saffron party has been troubling them for quite some time now. It is now clear that the combined opposition or their holy nexus, Mahagathbandhan, is a sinking ship. Moreover, regional leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, and N. Chandrababu Naidu are nothing but arrogant brut and rule their states with narcissist attitude. The despotic attitude of these leaders has made them absolutely unpopular in their respective states. Leaders who were once seen as forming the top brass of the party are now leaving the opposition and joining the Bharatiya Janata Party.