In a big blow to the Congress Party, almost all the members of the party from Vadodara, Gujarat, joined the BJP in the presence of Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil. The development took place when Patil had been to Vadodara to welcome two former city presidents from Congress, Prashant Patel and Suresh Patel. During the event, a large number of members from the grand old party including the councillors joined the BJP.
According to the reports, the number of Congress leaders who joined the BJP is close to a dozen. While the Congress leaders held massive roadshows to get people to come to the event and join the BJP, Paatil made a visit to veteran leader Suresh Patel’s home before the event, greeting him and leading him to the site.
Vadodara city chief Prashant Patel, veteran leader Suresh Patel, former Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) corporators Minal Gohil and Anil Parmar, real estate developers Bhavesh Patel and Sunil Agarwal, Jayesh Patel, and several supporters of the leaders were among the Congress leaders who joined the BJP on Sunday, September 17.
While Prashant Patel, Bhavesh Patel, and Suresh Patel conducted roadshows with vehicles carrying BJP flags, Patil paid a visit to Suresh Patel’s place of residence with BJP Vadodara city president Vijay Shah and former Vadodara mayor Bharat Dangar. This was to welcome Suresh Patel to the BJP and join in his rally at the venue.
Patil enumerated many government projects implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the years he served as Gujarat Chief Minister in his address to a gathering of BJP leaders. The event was organized at a venue under the Solar Panel at the Akota-Dandia Bazar flypast.
Patil, who laid the virtual foundation stone for the Kamalam, also criticized the Congress, saying that the opposing party insulted PM Modi’s Jan Dhan Yojana but is now ‘feeling the pinch.’
“The Congress middlemen have stopped getting the kickbacks from the scheme. They also started believing that Modi was right when he said, ‘I am not corrupt, I will not allow corruption (Na Khaunga na khane doonga). We can only pray for Modiji’s good health to help him continue to serve the country and its people on his birthday today,” he said.
While addressing to the newly joined members of the BJP, Patil said, “People like Prashant (Patel), Suresh (Patel), and other leaders are strong on their own, but they felt that they want to serve people; service towards people has ceased in the Congress, and they have joined the BJP.”
“They (oppositions) don’t want to perform any seva, they only want to eat meva (dry fruits). In the BJP, it is the leaders and party workers who are involved in public service. Elections are contested by its workers. But it is true we lost many seats (in the 2022 state elections) by a small margin. Had we won the seats Congress won only by a margin of up to 5,000 votes, it would have been a Congress-mukt Gujarat,” he added.
Prashant Patel, the former Vadodara city Congress President who contested on a party ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, resigned from all positions on Thursday, September 14 citing his “conscience” encouraging him to embrace the BJP’s Hindutva thought.
“I had stopped going to Congress events for the last year or so… But my conscience kept telling me that since Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working for the betterment of the Hindu Rashtra, which is the identity of the country… I want to work for the Hindu community. The concept of Hindu Rashtra includes distributing equal benefits to all communities but it is taking the country on the path of Hinduism…”
Apart from Prashant, another Congress politician, Jayesh Patel, also indicated that he and his supporters would join the BJP on September 17.
Notably, Suresh Patel who was Congress President of Vadodara stated that he and his family had been associated with Congress for three decades. But he was recently suspended from his position without any notice for giving the party plot to RSS for a program. Patel is said to have joined the party with 1200 supporters.
