Yet another lash comes in for Rahul Gandhi-led Congress party in Gujarat, as Mahendrasinh Vaghela, the former Congress legislator and son of political heavyweight Shankersinh Vaghela, formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday.
Mahendrasinh is a former Congress MLA who had quit the party last year in a rebellion led by his father, ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections where Congress top leader Ahmed Patel was seeking re-election to the upper house.
On his joining BJP, Mahendrasinh said, “I am ready for any kind of responsibility. As for the question of my father joining BJP or not, only he will know.”
The development took place nearly 48 hours after the BJP chief Amit Shah arrived in his home state Gujarat. Amit Shah, who has been credited for engineering these defections, landed in Ahmedabad on Thursday evening and performed the sacred ‘Manglaa Arti’ to open the traditional Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath in early hours of Saturday.
Also read: MLA Kuvarji Bavaliya resigns Congress, set to join BJP
This is another setback for Gujarat Congress as in the past fortnight, Congress veteran legislator Kunwarji Bavaliya and former MLA Indraneel Rajyaguru resigned from the party. Bavilya not only joined the BJP but was immediately made cabinet minister.
