As the election around the corner, many leaders have jumped ships and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), seeing no future in the opposition. Yesterday, senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader from Jharkhand, Girinath Singh, resigned from RJD and joined the BJP at party headquarter in New Delhi in presence of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. It seems that opposition parties are finding it difficult to hold their cadre as the general election is coming closer.
Earlier, RJD Jharkhand President Annapurna Devi joined the BJP. And afterwards, many leaders including RJD Secretary General Rajkumar Yadav, State Vice-President Virendra Mehta, and RJD Jhumariteliya Nagar Sangathan Secretary Sailesh Kumar Shalu also resigned from RJD.
On Wednesday, in a press conference, Girinath Singh shared the news of his resignation and further indicated that he would continue to be active in social and political activities. Not to forget that Jharkhand contributes a total of 14 seats for the government formation at center.
In the tremendously strategic landscape of Indian politics, the BJP with its organizational strategies has come out as a clear victor, not only in terms robust policy stances but specifically in attracting more leaders from opposition parties to join the BJP. The last few weeks have seen huge developments in this respect, with opposition leaders switching sides over to the BJP. Congress and TMC came out as the biggest losers, indicating the strategic thinking on the part of the saffron party to target its main opposition which includes Congress and TMC.
In Gujarat, four Congress legislators Jawahar Chavda, Parshottam Sabariya, Vallabh Dharaviya and Ashaben Patel have jumped ship from the Congress to the BJP. This comes as a huge setback for the Gujarat Congress, just before the polls. The next set of tremors were felt by the TMC when Anupam Hazra joined the BJP in the presence of the party General Secretary and West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya and senior leader Mukul Roy. Anupam Hazra was elected to the Bolpur constituency in the 2014 general elections. With Hazra, Congress MLA Dulal Chandra Bar and CPM MLA Khagen Murmu also joined the saffron party.
Similarly, in a major setback to Congress in Maharashtra, the son of the current Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly has officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in a much-publicised ceremony. Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of Leader of Opposition, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, was welcomed into BJP by Maharashtra CM, Devendra Fadnavis and other top NDA leaders in Mumbai.
Top leaders are also not untouched by the wave of defections; in essence, BJP has been successful in creating a sense of unease in the leadership and the ground cadre of Congress, RJD and TMC. This unease among party workers if not tendered with utmost urgency might lead to a disastrous electoral campaign and ultimately to electoral losses. BJP emerging as the biggest beneficiary of these strategic defections and it will surely put to good use the added leadership and cadre base.