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Journalism of Courage
With the Lok Sabha elections nearing, the year has witnessed an exodus of leaders from their respective parties citing multiple reasons, including negligence, difference in vision or ideology, and future gains, among others. The recent setback suffered by the Gujarat Congress with the exit of former state party chief Arjun Modhwadia is just a blip in the spectrum of leaders who have jumped the political bandwagon. Here is a list of politicians who have switched sides this year.
Former Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia is the latest in the line of leaders who quit the party, resigning just days before Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s entry in the state. Modhwadia, 67, confirmed he felt “suffocated” and that ending his 40-year association with the Congress was a “relief”.
“If there is any leader who has travelled most extensively for the Congress or held events for the party, it is me. If I have had to quit the party, it is for the Congress to introspect why I was forced to do so,” he said. Speculation is rife that Modhwadia is all set to join the BJP with his disciple, Congress state working president Ambarish Der resigning with him.
Modhwadia, a sitting MLA and a prominent OBC face, has been among the most vocal critics of the BJP-led Gujarat government over the years: First as the Leader of Opposition from 2004 to 2007 and then as the president of the GPCC from 2010 to 2014. Modhwadia, a mechanical engineer by qualification, joined the Congress in 1993, after resigning from the Gujarat Maritime Board. He was elected as an MLA from Porbandar in his maiden election in 2002 and re-elected in 2007. He lost the 2012 and 2017 polls but was re-elected in 2022.
Gujarat Congress Working President and former Rajula MLA Ambarish Der also quit the party with Modhwadia, citing the Congress leadership turning down the invitation to attend the Ram Temple consecration in Ayodhya in January for his decision. Der announced that he will be joining the BJP, saying it was necessary to differentiate between the work of a political party and an NGO. He also termed Congress’s stand on the Ram Mandir issue “unreasonable”.
However, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee said it had suspended the former MLA on Sunday “for anti-party activities”. Der, who began his political career from the BJP’s youth wing, said he had “deferred” his departure from the Congress despite getting invitations from the BJP on several occasions.
Veteran leader Tapas Roy (67) announced he was leaving the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on March 4, declaring himself a “free bird”. Amid buzz he could join the BJP, the MLA from Baranagar since 2011 said, “Politics will advance in a political way… Right now, I don’t know which party I’ll join. When I decide, I’ll let you know.”
Roy’s political sojourn began in Kolkata’s Surendranath College with the student organisation of the Congress in West Bengal, the Chhatra Parishad (CP). He entered the state Assembly in 1996 by winning a by-election from the erstwhile Vidyasagar segment in Central Kolkata on a Congress ticket. Having joined the TMC in 2000, Roy was elected to the Assembly for the first time the next year, from Barabazar, before winning thrice on the trot from Baranagar starting 2011.
In one of the major setbacks to the Congress in Maharashtra, former chief minister Ashok Chavan quit the party to join the BJP. “It is my personal decision to quit the party and I am not a person who will make my grievances public. I have been with the Congress since birth and, till yesterday, I worked for the Congress honestly. But now it is time to look for other options,” said Chavan. Congress sources said Chavan wanted to become the state unit president and had expressed this to the party leadership. “However, the party leadership wanted to stick with an OBC face ahead of general elections,” according to a senior party leader.
Senior Congress leader Milind Deora quit the Congress to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The party’s communications chief Jairam Ramesh told The Indian Express that Deora was worried about the Mumbai South Lok Sabha seat, which he has contested the last four elections and represented from 2004 to 2014, going to the Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray that is now the Congress’s ally. Deora lost Mumbai South to the Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant in 2014 and 2019, abruptly quitting as the Mumbai Congress president in the middle of the Lok Sabha campaign five years ago to focus on his efforts to win back the constituency.
Deora first entered the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Mumbai South. He was one of India’s youngest MPs at the time and was known as a part of Team Rahul Gandhi along with other young leaders such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, R P N Singh, Jitin Prasad, and Sachin Pilot. Except for Pilot, all of them have jumped ship.
Mumbai Congress’s high-profile face from the upscale Bandra belt, Baba Siddique, joined the NCP faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Announcing his resignation on X, former minister and three-time MLA, Siddique, 66, said: “I joined the Indian National Congress party as a young teenager and it has been a significant journey lasting 48 years. Today I resign from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress Party with immediate effect. There’s a lot I would have liked to express but as they say some things are better left unsaid. I thank everyone who has been a part of this journey.”
Congress’s lone MP from Jharkhand and the wife of former CM Madhu Koda, Geeta Koda, quit the party to join the BJP. Her exit has left the Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ruling alliance with only one MP – Vijay Hansdak – from the state. Madhu Koda, who had been accused of irregularities to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore in the coal block allocation case of 2017 and convicted in a disproportionate assets case, has also joined the BJP.
Bahujan Samaj Party’s Ambedknagar MP Ritesh Pandey resigned alleging neglect, and joined the BJP. “For a long time, I have not been called to party meetings and the leadership is also not communicating with me. I made several attempts to contact and meet you and other top office-bearers but got no results. During this period, I kept meeting the public and workers and continued working in the constituency. I have concluded that the party does not need my service and presence anymore,” Pandey wrote in his resignation letter.
Congress’s C J Chavda tendered his resignation as the MLA from north Gujarat’s Vijapur constituency and is likely to join the BJP. Chavda, a three-time MLA, is a veteran Congress leader who held the post of chief whip in the previous Assembly when he was elected from the Gandhinagar North constituency. In 2022, Chavda changed his constituency and contested from Vijapur in Mehsana district. Chavda was also elected to Gujarat Assembly from Gandhinagar constituency in 2002.
Speaking to media persons, Chavda said, “When the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha Mahotsav is on or when the surgical strike was done, statements from the Congress party, whoever their advisers are, damage the country. I do not like that.”
Nagarkurnool MP Pothuganti Ramulu of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti joined the BJP, along with his son Bharat Prasad. Speaking to The Indian Express, Ramulu said his decision was guided by the voters’ sentiments ahead of the parliamentary elections.
Former BRS MP BB Patil from Zaheerabad also joined the BJP and has been fielded from the same constituency in the Lok Sabha elections by the saffron party. Although his exit jolted the BRS, the two-time MP from Zaheerabad was not being considered for his seat by the party, sources say.
BRS MP from Telangana’s Peddapalli, Venkatesh Netha Borlakunta joined the Congress. Borlakunta, a one-time MP elected in 2019 joined the party in New Delhi. He was reportedly unlikely to be renominated by the BRS.
BRS leader Manne Jeevan Reddy also joined the Congress along with Venkatesh, with both leaders eyeing Congress tickets to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, sources said. Reddy, a former member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams board, was welcomed by All India Congress Committee general secretary K C Venugopal and Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.
Another Assam Congress working president, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, and Mangaldoi MLA Basanta Das declared support to the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government. CM Sarma has claimed that all the Congress MLAs barring a few Muslim legislators have been in touch with him and would join the BJP before the 2026 Assembly elections
Andhra Pradesh YSRCP MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy quit the party, citing “self-respect” issues. Sreenivasulu, whose son has turned ‘approver’ in the Delhi excise scam case, is the fifth YSRCP MP to exit the party over the past few weeks.
Sources said Sreenivasulu, who was pushing for a ticket for his son M Raghava Reddy for the Ongole Lok Sabha seat, was miffed after YSRCP chief and Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy appointed Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy as the parliamentary in-charge for the seat, virtually ending his chances. Leaders close to the MP said Sreenivasulu is likely to join the TDP, which has assured his son of a ticket.
Five leaders from the YSRCP – namely Vallabhaneni Balashowry (Machilipatnam MP), K Raghu Ramakrishna Raju (Narasapuram), Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu (Narasaraopeta), Sanjeev Kumar (Kurnool) and V Prabhakar Reddy (Rajya Sabha MP) – exited the party in February. While Balashowry has joined the JanaSena Party (JSP), the others have already joined or will soon join JSP ally Telugu Desam party (TDP).
Rajya Sabha MP and former five-term Lok Sabha MP from Chhota Udepur, Congress leader Naran Rathwa, and his son, Youth Congress leader Sangramsinh Rathwa, as well as Ahmedabad Congress leader Dharmendra Patel joined the BJP in Gandhinagar. The Rathwas said the decision was due to “demoralisation from lack of decision-making” in the Congress. Incidentally, Naran completed his Rajya Sabha term as a Congress MP this month.
Naran had been an elected Lok Sabha MP from 1989 to 1998 for four consecutive terms. He won the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, and also served as Union Minister of State for Railways in the UPA-I government. Sangramsinh, who began as a youth leader of the Congress, has been the president of the Chhota Udepur Municipality since 2021 as well as the vice-president of the Gujarat Youth Congress. He is also the former general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress.
Former working president of the Maharashtra Congress and ex-MLA Basavraj Patil joined the ruling BJP. Patil, who hails from Latur district in Marathwada, has represented Ausa assembly constituency in 2009 and 2014. He lost to BJP’s Abhimanyu Pawar in 2019. Since then despite being made the party’s working president, Patil was inactive from the party functioning. Patil, a Lingayat leader from Marathwada, is likely to contest from Dharashiv Lok Sabha constituency. Reacting to Patil’s exit, state Congress chief Nana Patole said, “We do not know anything about Patil. He has been inactive for a few years now.”
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