2 Gujarat Congress veterans join BJP, meet PM Modi in Delhi

New Delhi: Ahead of the much-awaited Gujarat Assembly elections, Congress, which is already facing massive political turbulence within the party, got another blow as two veteran leaders announced to leave the party. The latest development came after the two Congress loyalists– former Gujarat Home Minister Naresh Raval, and former Rajya Sabha member Rajubhai Parmar– met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

According to the news report, the duo have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Further, the report suggests that the two Congress veterans exhibited great vexation before announcing their next innings with the saffron cadre.

Raval, who was also the Opposition leader in the Gujarat Assembly when the state witnessed one of the horrific incidents– 2002 Gujarat riots, wherein more than 1,000 people were killed. He was with Congress for 40 years.

While announcing his resignation on Thursday, August 4, he said, “I sent my resignation letter to President of Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi. There are plenty of reasons for my vexation with Congres. I will share my resentments with the media in the coming days.”

However, Parmar, didn’t disclose the reason behind his decision but added he would hold a press conference in the next few days.

It is worth mentioning here that Congress is already facing a massive blow as the Patidar reservation agitation fame Hardik Patel had recently announced to apart from the party within two years of joining the party.

In the last Assembly elections, Congress had given a scare to the ruling BJP by restricting its MLAs to 99 and winning 77 seats on its own. Assembly elections in Gujarat are likely to be held later this year.