In a dramatic turn of events, another Congress MLA has quit the party and joined the BJP. MLA from Jamnagar (Rural) constituency, Vallabh Dharaviya has officially joined the ruling BJP after resigning from his post as MLA in Gujarat.
Along with Vallabh, Parsotam Sabariya, who had resigned from his post as MLA last week, has also officially joined the BJP, as confirmed by the incumbent speaker, Shri Rajendra Trivedi.
“I am joining the BJP to develop my constituency. I was not under any pressure and have resigned from the Congress voluntarily. As far as the FIR is concerned, the law will take its own course. The BJP has to do nothing about it. I am not joining BJP to get any post or for other benefits,” Sabariya told the media. With that, the Congress’ strength in the Gujarat legislative assembly has further dropped to 71. In the last week, more than four MLAs have officially defected to BJP.
Interestingly, this comes at a time when the Congress is trying to demonstrate a show of strength to the ruling party in the forthcoming Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet at Gandhinagar, a first in the last 58 years. Congress had hoped that the CWC meeting hosted in PM Modi and BJP President’s home turf would send a strong message. However, the defection coming on the heels of the meeting has clearly upended the plan for INC. To emphasize how much importance Gujarat holds for Congress, the first list of LS candidates released by the party focused on only two states, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
The sudden defection of party MLAs poses a lot of questions for the Congress. The current attitude of the grand old party towards the issue of national security, as well as their decision to include Hardik Patel into the party, hasn’t gone down well with certain party members. As such, they preferred to abandon the sinking ship of Congress rather than go down with the same in the upcoming polls.
The sudden defection has hit Congress really hard. They were aiming to corner BJP with their much-touted CWC meet. Buoyed by the unexpected victories in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan, the Congress tried to show that they could take the Modi Shah duo head on in their home state.
However, with the unexpected defection by their own party MLAs, it seems that BJP has turned the tables for the better. Not only has the defection hit the grand old party right where it would hurt them the most, but also it would certainly dampen their spirits the most when they get together for the CWC meet. Besides, with the current rants of their party chief, it doesn’t seem that the things would cool down anytime soon.