Former Gujarat Congress spokesperson Jayrajsinh Parmar, who resigned from the party recently, will join the BJP on Tuesday. Last week, local Congress leaders from North Gujarat had joined the saffron party.
Parmar quit the party saying he had been sidelined, and that the party has become “personal property” of some leaders, who cannot even win elections.
Belonging to Kshatriya community and hailing from North Gujarat, where the Congress has good hold, Parmar is the latest addition to the set of leaders who have deserted the grand old party.
Leaders and MLAs leaving the Congress and joining the BJP is not new in Gujarat. Successive state party chiefs have not managed to stop their leaders and workers from quitting the party.
The Congress, which has been away from power in Gujarat for more than two decades, has lost more than 20 of its MLAs since 2020. On Sunday, nine more local leaders from North Gujarat and Gandhinagar quit the party.
Congress is unlikely to repeat the good performance it put up in 2017 assembly elections if the exodus of leaders continues. The Congress had restricted the BJP’s tally to 99 in the 182-member house and had bagged 77 seats in 2017.
While calls to Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor went unanswered, chief spokesperson of the Gujarat Congress, Manish Doshi, admitted that there is a need to improve communication within the party and introspect.
The way forward will be important for the Congress as the state goes to polls by the end of the year.
Congress sources said the party has not been able to give posts to its leaders and workers in the corporations and other government bodies as it has been away from power for quite a number of years now. The party workers are getting dejected because of this.
The party is organising a four-day brain-storming session in Dwarka next week. Sources said strategies and issues faced by the party are expected to be discussed in the meet to be attended by top leaders of the state. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to attend the meeting on one day.
The Congress not only faces the challenge of keeping its flock together, it also need to find out leaders who can win elections.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP’s strategy is clear as is seen from the recent resignations of Congress leaders. A senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity, said the party is trying to weaken the Congress in areas where it has a strong presence. The focus is on the 2022 assembly elections, and the BJP wants nothing to go wrong in the state which is shown as the model state in the country.
Leaders and workers from the Aam Aadmi Party have also joined the BJP. As the BJP leader puts it, the whole idea is to drive home a clear message that the BJP is the only option for the people to vote for.