Top Gujarat Opposition Leader Joins BJP, Another Rejoins Congress

While Kunwarji Bavaliya joined BJP, Bholabhai Gohel rejoined Congress after a short stint with the ruling party.

Image used for representation.

(Photo: The Quint/Erum Gour)

In a blow to the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, senior OBC community leader and five-time legislator Kunwarji Bavaliya on Tuesday, 3 July, resigned from the party and is set to be inducted as a minister in the BJP government in Gujarat.

However, former Gujarat Congress MLA Bholabhai Gohel, who had joined the ruling BJP after the Rajya Sabha polls in August 2017, rejoined the main opposition party on 3 July.

Bavaliya, who alleged that he was leaving the Congress as president Rahul Gandhi was "playing casteist politics in the party", was welcomed to the BJP by its Gujarat chief Jitu Vaghani.

Vaghani said Bavaliya will be inducted in the state cabinet later today by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

Gohel, on the other hand, was re-inducted into the party by Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Paresh Dhanani at a function held at state party headquarter here.

Rahul Playing Casteist Politics: Balviya

In an email to Gandhi, informing him about his resignation, Bavaliya expressed displeasure over the party's functioning in the state, Congress sources said.

The BJP had faced reverses in the Saurashtra region in the Gujarat polls in 2017, after the drifting away of the Patidar community, following the quota agitation led by Hardik Patel.

Bavaliya said he was not able to fulfil the people's expectations while being in the Congress, as the party president played “casteist politics.”

“I was not getting a chance to work the way I wanted to while being in the Congress due to constant infighting in the party. This (BJP) government is moving ahead with a mission, and I will be able to succeed in fulfilling expectations of the people, the rural populace, poor and farmers. The way Rahulji is playing casteist politics, I realised that I will not be able to succeed in working in the Congress any more,” he said.

Bavaliya, the five-time MLA from Jasdan, was also a Member of Parliament from the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat in 2009. He had also been the working president of the state Congress unit twice.

Cong to Field Gohel Against Balviya?

Incidentally, Gohel switched sides just hours after sitting Congress MLA from Jasdan, Kunvarji Bavaliya, quit the party and also the Assembly seat, and joined the BJP.

Commenting on Gohel's return to the Congress, Chavda said many other BJP leaders would walk on the same path ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"Gohel had not accepted any major responsibility in the BJP after joining the party (a year back). He re-joined the Congress as he wanted to come back to the party fold," Chavda told reporters.

As Bavaliya has resigned as the MLA and set to become a minister in the BJP government, it is believed Gohel would be fielded by the Congress against Bavaliya in the bypoll for the Jasdan seat.

Gohel was among the eight Gujarat Congress MLAs who had voted against Ahmed Patel, their party's candidate in the Rajya Sabha poll from Gujarat in August 2017. He later resigned as legislator.

Despite cross-voting by some Congress MLAs in favour of BJP candidate Balwantsinh Rajput, Patel had won the poll.

Though Gohel joined the BJP after the RS polls, he was not given ticket from Jasdan for the December 2017 Assembly polls in which Bavaliya had defeated BJP candidate Bharat Boghara from the seat.