Former Shivpuri district BJP vice-president Rakesh Kumar Gupta, a "loyalist" of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, marked his return to the Congress Monday with a massive car rally of over 2,000 supporters. Gupta joined the party in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president Kamal Nath and other senior leaders. He had left the Congress in 2020, along with Scindia, during the rebellion which brought down the Kamal Nath-led government. With folded arms, Gupta apologised to the Congress workers on Monday. "I am coming back home. The Congress party had given me my name, respect, and leadership. I have worked for 40 years in the Congress party. I have served the people. My father was a Congress member from the times of the Independence struggle to his death. I want to apologise to the Congress family because I made a mistake, and there is a blot on my character. I have come here with folded hands, please forgive me," Gupta told the crowd gathered at the Congress headquarters in Bhopal. "My spirit was in the Congress, and my body was in the BJP. What the BJP says and it does, there is a big difference. What the Congress party says it does. The Kamal Nath government had done a lot of work in its short span of time. The farmer loans could not be waived off only because the government was brought down. My mind, body and soul are the Congress. When I die, even my coffin will be the Congress," Gupta said. The Congress hopes to capitalise on Gupta's connections with the Shivpuri traders' community. Sources in Gupta's camp said he had felt sidelined in the BJP. "He was not given respect in the BJP. He was made the vice-president of the district and not given any roles. He was not invited to any public events," said a leader close to Gupta. Ahead of the Assembly poll in Madhya Pradesh later this year, several BJP leaders have crossed over to the Congress. The BJP said the leaders who had left the party were disgruntled and insecure about their future. "Those who are leaving thought they would be given tickets. But it is a rigorous process, and only the deserving candidates will get a ticket. You have to work on the ground to get a ticket." On June 23, Dhruv Pratap Singh, a former BJP MLA from Katni district, left the party after his differences with party president V D Sharma. In May, former minister Deepak Joshi quit BJP after being sidelined by the party leadership. The son of Kailash Joshi, the former chief minister and a founding member of the BJP, Deepak alleged that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had not constructed a memorial for his late father. Another BJP leader Baijnath Singh Yadav also cut ties with Scindia over reportedly not being given a seat in the election and joined the Congress in June with a 700-car rally. Yadvendra Singh Yadav joined the Congress from the BJP in March, taking potshots at Scindia.
