As Rahul Yatra enters Gujarat today, a battered Congress awaits him

AS Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra enters Gujarat Thursday, it will be received by a Congress reeling under a series of jolts.

Over the past few days, two Congress MLAs, including veteran Arjun Modhwadia, apart from senior party leaders have quit the party – which has now been out of power in the state for 30 years — with most of them joining the ruling BJP.

The biggest blow to the Congress was losing Modhwadia, a three-time MLA from Porbandar, who has served as Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly as well as the party’s state chief. He joined the BJP a day after quitting, accompanied by his follower and former Congress Rajula MLA Ambarish Der as well as PCC working president Mulu Kandoriya.

On Wednesday, the eve of the arrival of Rahul’s Yatra, the Congress MLA from Manavadar, Arvind Ladani, quit – becoming the fourth sitting legislator to leave the party since the 2022 Assembly elections, reducing the party in the Assembly to 13.

The departures seemed synchronised with the Yatra, as seen in other states where Rahul has passed through, and further diminish the Congress’s chances of making any impact in the coming Lok Sabha polls. The BJP has won all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat the past two elections.

Modhwadia and Ladani were the Congress’s last few remaining bright spots in the Saurashtra-Kutch region, which comprises 54 of the state’s 182 Assembly seats, and 7 of its 26 Lok Sabha constituencies. Now the only leader of import for the party in the area is Somnath MLA Vimal Chudasama.

The departures come at a time when the Congress is still to recover from the 2022 Assembly results, which saw its worst-ever performance in a state that it dominated till 1995. The bypolls to the seats which are vacant