The official Twitter account of Bhartiya Janta Party Gujarat Pradesh on Monday announced that as many as 250 Aam Aadmi Party workers have joined the BJP ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections.
“More than 250 Aam Aadmi Party workers from Surat, Junagadh, Navsari and Vadodara joined the Bharatiya Janata Party,” read the party’s Tweet.
https://twitter.com/BJP4Gujarat/status/1434863886625239043?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwReportedly, AAP’s former state youth president Mahipatsinh Chauhan and Surat district chief Batuk Bhai also abandoned the party to join BJP. Mahipatsihn had tendered his resignation in July over an altercation with his party-men after they cancelled an event to felicitate him.
Whereas Batuk Bhai with dozen others had tendered his resignation recently and was welcomed to the BJP by State Vice President Gordhan Zadafia, General Secretary Pradeep Singh Vaghela and others.
Zadafia claimed that the AAP workers were inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus on development. “We are no longer a hapless nation. The country has progressed in every field under the guidance of PM Modi,” asserted Zadafia.
Taking a jibe at AAP’s claim of winning 120 seats in Gujarat, Batuk Bhai who is now with the BJP challenged AAP leader Isudan Gadhvi to name at least five seats that he is confident of winning.
Hardik Patel calls AAP ‘B-team’ of BJP
Seeing the turn in the tide, working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) Hardik Patel alleged that the AAP was working as BJP’s ‘B-team’ in Gujarat to cut Congress votes.
“It’s very simple. Whenever the BJP sees the situation to their disadvantage they raise a third front in Gujarat. This happened in 2007 with the Mahagujarat Janata Parishad, the Gujarat Parivartan Party in 2012, or be it NCP or BSP, and now it is AAP,” said Patel.