BJP president for Chotila taluka unit in Surendranagar joins Congress

“The BJP has deceived people by making many false promises. BJP misled us by falsehoods. Now, we shall fight and work for the local people,” an official release from the Congress quoted Bachu Dabhi as saying.

The defection comes a day after Gujariya, a prominent Congress face and a sitting member of Surendranagar district panchayat, and Vaghji Kaila alias Vaghji Patel of APP, rejoined BJP on Tuesday.

Gunjariya was elected to Surendranagar district panchayat from Malvan on a BJP ticket but he defected to Congress in the run up to the 2022 Assembly elections. Subsequently, Congress nominated Gujarariya as its candidate from Dhrangadhra.

On the other hand, Kaila, who was a member of board of directors of BJP-controlled Dhrangadhra APMC, had quit BJP and joined AAP in the run-up to the 2022 elections. The APP nominated him from Dhrangadhra seat. However, both Gujaraiya and Kaila lost to Prakash Varmora of the BJP.

“After joining Congress, I realised that Congress is a dormant party, which doesn’t care about working for the common people and visits people only during elections to seek votes. I somehow managed to get 80,000 votes on my own in the Assembly election but was fed up with the ways of the Congress. So, I thought it best to return to the BJP for which I have been working for 20 years,” Gunjariya told The Indian Express.

He added that he had quit the BJP in protest of the party fielding Varmora, whom he identified as an outsider. “I have been working for the BJP since I was 20 and fought taluka panchayat and district panchayat elections. But the BJP has been giving tickets to outsiders for the Dhrangadhra seat – be it Devji Fatepara, Parsottam Sabariya or Varmora. Last election, the BJP told us that Varmora, who is from Morbi, will be our MLA.”

“I protested against this tendency of the BJP to field outsiders from Dhrangadhra and joined the Congress… Now, the BJP has given us some assurances and I returned to my parent party,” he said.