‘Big setback to Congress’: Senior leaders including five former MLAs joined BJP

Giving a big shock to Congress party leadership, many senior leaders of the party including five former MLAs joined BJP in Gujarat. The five former MLAs, out of the total eight who had resigned as legislators in March and June- ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections- joined the BJP on Saturday.

Former Congress MLAs Jitu Chaudhary, Pradyumnasinh Jadeja, J V Kakadiya, Akshay Patel and Brijesh Merja joined the BJP in the presence of party’s state unit president Jitu Vaghani and other senior leaders.

Welcoming the five MLAs’ decision to join the BJP, Vaghani said that their presence would strengthen the party at the local level. He also expressed confidence that the BJP would win the bye-elections to the constituencies, which have fallen vacant due to their resignations.

Congress which  has won 77 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections, has been reduced to 65 seats after 12 MLAs resigned over the years, many of whom joined the ruling BJP.