Ashok Dangar quits Congress, defects to BJP for the second time

Hailing from Ahir community, which is an OBC caste group, Dangar had become the first Congress mayor of Rajkot when he assumed office in 2000 after Congress won election to the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) for the first time in the history of the civic body. He served as Rajkot mayor till 2003. However, Congress lost the 2005 and 2010 elections to BJP.

Dangar, who had joined Congress in 1983 after becoming a member of National Students Union of India (NSCUI), the students’ wing of Congress, defected to BJP in 2012. He returned to Congress in 2018 and was appointed president of the party’s Rajkot city unit. However, he resigned from the post after Congress lost the 2021 election to RMC.

“In Congress, leaders don’t consider good workers as theirs. For them, their relatives are the only ones who are good. The party is riddled with groupism,” Dangar said after rejoining BJP.