Vadodara: The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) engineered one more defection, this time just ahead of the Karjan byelections. Jagdish Patel, a key cooperative sector leader from the Congress, joined the BJP.
Jagdish, who was amongst the frontrunners for the Congress ticket to Karjan seat, joined the party on Sunday night. BJP sources said that he had a major clout in Shinor under the Karjan constituency and could be a major asset for the BJP.
Jagdish has been associated with the Baroda Dairy, Baroda Central Cooperative Bank, sugar cooperatives and other institutions, particularly in the cooperative sector. Sources said that he was sulking ever since the Congress decided to field Kiritsinh Jadeja from Karjan.
State BJP general secretary Shabdasharan Brahmbhatt said that before Jagdish, another prominent leader from the Congress Chandrakant Patel had joined the BJP. He said that the confidence of Congress in the constituency was wrongly placed and BJP would win. To portray that its citadel was safe, the BJP on Monday also brought out a video of former Karjan BJP MLA Satish Patel requesting the electorate to vote for the BJP.
Earlier, an audio had gone viral where a man believed to be from the BJP was asking aides not to vote for the party. It was also being speculated that Satish was sulking and may damage the party’s chances. The constituency will vote on Tuesday. Akshay Patel who was elected from the Congress in 2017, but then quit as an MLA and joined the BJP, is contesting from the BJP this time around. He had defeated Satish in the 2017 polls.