Top Congress leaders arriving in Ahmedabad on Monday for a key meet were welcomed with a defection by a party MLA, the third in four days. Jamnagar Rural legislator Vallabh Dharaviya switched side to BJP, adding to the wave of resignations that has hit the party and bringing down the party's strength in the Assembly to 72 from 77.
The Congress Working Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday. It will be attended by Party president Rahul Gandhi, former president Sonia Gandhi, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh.
Dharaviya, originally with the BJP, had moved to the Congress after senior leader Raghavji Patel was chosen over him for a ticket for the 2017 polls. He then contested as Congress candidate and defeated Raghavji.
On his ghar wapsi, Dharaviya said, "BJP is my gotra and I endorse the same ideology this party has. I won the last polls because people in my constituency put faith in me. However, in these 15 months, I realised that I was on the wrong path." He said Congress has too many internal clashes. "Only nepotism prevails there. I was feeling suffocated."
When asked why is Congress party a silent spectator when BJP is poaching its MLAs in Gujarat, Rajeev Satav, in-charge of Gujarat said that it does not affect the party much as people of Gujarat are not re-electing such persons. "Between 2012 and 2017, BJP poached 17 MLAs but only 2 of them managed to get elected. [BJP president] Amit Shah claimed that the party would get 150 seats but their tally was reduced to 99 in Vidhan Sabha elections."