Mumbai: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the already marginal Opposition in Gujarat has been further eroding with at least six MLAs resigning in the past three months to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Congress has suffered the biggest setback, having lost four of its 17 MLAs — Arvind Ladani, Arjun Modhwadia, C.J. Chavda and Chirag Patel — complaining about the party’s style of functioning in the state and its unsaid disassociation from the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in January.
Ladani resigned Wednesday, a day before senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Nyay Jodo Yatra was scheduled to reach Gujarat.
Bhupendra Bhayani, one of the five AAP MLAs elected to the 182-member Gujarat assembly in 2022, resigned in December, saying he believes in development and serving people, and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the “nation’s pride”.
Similarly, one of the three independent MLAs in the Gujarat assembly, Dharmendrasinh Vaghela, resigned in January, saying he wanted to strengthen Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s hands to establish a ‘Ramrajya’ in India. Bhayani and Vaghela were formerly associated with the BJP.
With the BJP’s vote share expanding, for Gujarat, the slow decimation of the Opposition has started to become a pattern, with a significant number of MLAs quitting after the 2017 assembly elections as well.
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Congress’s slide in Gujarat
In 2012, two years before Modi became the country’s prime minister, the BJP had won 115 seats in Gujarat, while the Congress secured 61. The party’s vote share was 38.93 percent as against the BJP’s 47.85 percent.
In 2017, the Congress seemed resurgent. It rattled the BJP by clinching 77 seats, reducing the latter’s tally to 99. The Congress’s vote share also increased to 41.44 percent, while the BJP secured a vote share of 49.05 percent. This was the Congress’s best tally since 1995, so there was hope that the party would build on the performance.
It was, however, rocked by defections and by the end of the assembly’s five-year term, its rally was reduced to 60.
In the 2022 assembly elections, the party’s campaign was silent and lacklustre against a shrill BJP and AAP. The Congress recorded its worst-ever performance in Gujarat, winning just 17 seats and ending up with a dismal vote share of 27.28 percent, compared with the BJP’s 52.5 percent.
A state Congress functionary who did not wish to be named told ThePrint last week: “The seniors of the Congress leadership in Gujarat are a spent force. Their lives are completely controlled by the BJP, in terms of their business, farming contracts, institutions. They are afraid to rock the boat.”
Of those who’ve left the party, the departure of Modhwadia and Chavda particularly hurts, with both being senior and vocal leaders in the assembly. Both former MLAs had often led the party’s criticism against the BJP, Gujarat Congress members say. Both have now joined the BJP.
Modhwadia, a three-time MLA from Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, is a former president of the Congress’ Gujarat unit and had also been opposition leader in the state assembly. Several other party leaders including former MLA Ambarish Der and Navsari district functionary Dharmesh Patel, also resigned with Modhwadia.
Chavda, too, is a three-term MLA who worked in the state administration before joining politics. He won elections from different constituencies — Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar North and Vijapur — defying a strong tide in the BJP’s favour in 2002, 2017 and 2022, respectively.
Patel too has joined the BJP, while Ladani said he plans to join the BJP.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Parthivraj Kathawadiya told ThePrint: “There is nothing that Gujarat Congress did not give these leaders. Modhwadia was given every possible post and was nominated from the Porbandar seat in 2022 despite having lost the preceding two assembly polls from there. C.J. Chavda was always given the seat that he wanted. Modhwadia used to refer to Amit Shah and Modi as ‘Ranga-Billa’ (from a 1978 murder and kidnapping case). But greed for money and power took precedence.”
Gulabsinh Chauhan, Congress MLA from Lunawada in Mahisagar district, told ThePrint that the party leadership has been in touch with the remaining MLAs. “We have been given an assurance that none of the 13 MLAs will defect,” he said.
AAP MLA defector tempted to join BJP soon after victory
The string of MLA resignations and defections in this term of the Gujarat assembly started with AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani quitting as legislator in December and joining the BJP last month.
Gujarat AAP president Isudan Gadhvi said the BJP had “tortured” Bhayani, compelling him to resign. Gadhvi also claimed that the “BJP has been trying to break the AAP in Gujarat” ever since the latter made its foray in the state assembly by winning five seats in 2022 amid a sweeping BJP wave.
Bhayani had, however, shown an inclination to join hands with the BJP soon after his victory from the Visavadar seat in the Junagarh district.
Back then, Bhayani had said he had been associated with the BJP since 2001 and had grown up with the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent. He asserted that he had not decided to join the BJP as such, but would take a decision after consulting his supporters about whether the move would benefit his electorate.
Bhayani’s resignation further dents the AAP in Gujarat at a time when the party has seen a steady erosion of its cadre, with several functionaries leaving the party, mainly to join the Congress.
Like Bhayani, Vaghela, the independent MLA who resigned, was also associated with the BJP in the past. The leader from Vaghodia in Vadodara had contested as an independent candidate after the BJP denied him a ticket.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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