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Journalism of Courage
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, there has been a continuous exodus of leaders from the Congress to the BJP. As the 2024 Lok Sabha polls near, jumping the political bandwagon will be a very common sight. This week, the Congress suffered a blow in the southern belt as party leaders in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala joined the BJP on three consecutive days.
Here’s a list of prominent Congress leaders who have jumped over to the BJP in recent times:
The latest addition to the saffron party is former Congress leader CR Kesavan, the great grandson of the country’s first Indian Governor-General C Rajagopalachari, who joined the BJP on Saturday. Kesavan had resigned from the Congress in February, saying that he had “not seen any of the vestiges of the values that made him work for the party for over two decades.”
“I want to thank the elders for inducting me into the world’s largest political party, especially on a day when the Prime Minister is in Tamil Nadu,” Kesavan said at a press conference in New Delhi. “Their presence here proves the deep respect the BJP has for the founding fathers and mothers of our great nation, including C Rajagopalachari,” he added.
Former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, joined the BJP on Friday, less than a month after he resigned from the Congress. Reddy, who was the last chief minister of Andhra Pradesh before its bifurcation in 2014, had resigned from the Congress on March 12, the second time in nine years.
Reddy said that Congress was “taking wrong decisions” and paying the price for them. “The sad part is they are not interested in doing any course correction. If a mistake has been made, it should be acknowledged and efforts should be made to correct it. There is no such thing in Congress. Due to the Congress high command’s bad decisions, the party is losing everywhere,” he said.
More than two months after he resigned from his positions in the Congress following a controversy over his comments on a BBC documentary on the Gujarat riots, former Union defence minister A K Antony’s son Anil K Antony found joined the BJP on Thursday. In January, Anil had prefaced his comments on the documentary by saying that “despite his large differences with the BJP” he believed that the documentary could undermine India’s sovereignty.
The BJP hopes Anil’s addition to the party will boost its prospects among Kerala’s Christians, a community it has been trying to woo. The senior Antony called his son’s decision “really painful”. The Congress said Anil’s decision, which came on Maundy Thursday, a holy day for Christians, was like “Judas betraying Jesus”.
Two weeks after quitting the Congress, Patidar leader Hardik Patel had formally joined the BJP on June 3, 2022, saying it was his duty to become a “soldier” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work for “national interest”. Patel had joined the Congress in 2019 and was made the working president of its state unit in July 2020.
In his resignation letter, addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and posted on Twitter, Hardik had taken a swipe at Rahul Gandhi without naming him: “Whenever our country faced challenges and when the Congress needed leadership, Congress leaders were enjoying abroad.”
He had also accused the party of being “a roadblock” on key issues. “Over the last 3 years, I have found that the Congress party and its leadership, both at central and state level, have been merely reduced to opposing everything, whereas the people always seek an alternative that thinks of their future and is capable of taking India ahead.”
Jitin Prasada was the first among the group of 23 Congress leaders, who had written to Sonia Gandhi last year seeking radical changes in the organisation, to leave the party. The Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh joined the BJP on June 10, 2021.
Prasada’s exit marked yet another setback to the party which has seen a steady erosion of leaders in Uttar Pradesh since 2014. Prasada took over charge of the Uttar Pradesh Public Works Department and played a vital role in the the crucial 2022 Assembly elections in the state.
Congress turncoat and former Union minister R P N Singh’s addition to the BJP was a big boost to the party ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. A day after the Congress featured Singh’s name in its list of star campaigners for UP, Singh joined the the BJP on January 25, 2022.
“I have been in one party for the last 32 years, but today I must say that the party is no longer what it used to be, nor is its thought. Today, everyone knows that if there is one party that is working for the benefit of the people and is working on building the nation, it is the BJP,” Singh had said after joining the BJP.
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