Gujarat BJP rebels send feelers to Cong

Dissident BJP leaders from gujarat, including suresh mehta and gordhan zadafia, have approached the congress...

Dissident BJP leaders from gujarat, including suresh mehta and gordhan zadafia, have approached the congress, exploring the possibility of joining the party ahead of the Assembly elections.

Senior BJP leaders Mehta and Zadafia were in touch with the top Congress leadership in New Delhi on behalf of over a dozen BJP MLAs and MPs who want to switch, according to party sources. Dissidents leaders Kashiram Rana and Arvind Patel are also in Delhi for talks with the Congress. So is the Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, Arjun Modhvadia.

Said a senior Congress functionary: “They have approached us to discuss the political situation in Gujarat but they have not yet made a formal proposal seeking to join the party…. They have to first make up their mind whether they want to join the Congress or the NCP to fight against Narendra Modi.”

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Sources said the dissidents from the BJP had contacted Congress leaders on the phone but not met them yet.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will take a view about the BJP dissidents’ overtures to join the party shortly, said Congress sources.

A host of BJP leaders including three MPs — Kashiram Rana, Somabhai Patel, and Vallabh Kathiria — have been in the forefront of the campaign against Modi. Former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who led the rebellion, was yet to make up his mind on whether he would join the Congress or continue his fight against Modi independently, said Congress sources.

Sources said that the newly set-up election committee headed by Gujarat Congress chief Bharat Solanki and including Shakarsinh Vaghela and Dinsha Patel, among others, will consider the request of dissident BJP leaders to join the party “if and when” it is made formally.