Congress loses another leader to BJP in Gujarat, former MP and son jump ship

The Congress on Tuesday continued to lose leaders in Gujarat as five-time Lok Sabha MP and outgoing Rajya Sabha member Naran Rathwa, his son Sangramsinh, and Ahmedabad Congress leader Dharmendra Patel were among several who joined the BJP at an event in Gandhinagar. In the last two months, the Congress has lost MLA Chirag Patel and Assembly chief whip C J Chavda to the ruling party.

One of the Congress’s tribal faces in Gujarat, Rathwa is a former Union Minister and was a close aide of the late Ahmed Patel. His absence is expected to further dent the Congress in the Chhota Udepur district. The Rathwa father-son duo said they decided to quit the party because of “demoralisation from lack of decision-making”.

Rathwa began his political career with the Janata Dal and served as the vice president of the then Baroda district unit. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989 on a Janata Dal ticket. Two years later, Rathwa switched over to the Congress and won his second term. He won the parliamentary polls in 1996 and 1998 too but lost to the BJP’s Ramsinh Rathwa in 1999.

આજે પ્રદેશ કાર્યાલય શ્રી કમલમ ખાતે કોંગ્રેસનાં સિનિયર અને આદિવાસી સમાજનાં નેતા શ્રી નારણભાઇ રાઠવા, એમનાં પુત્ર શ્રી સંગ્રામ રાઠવા, શ્રી ધર્મેન્દ્રભાઇ પટેલ સહિત મોટી સંખ્યામાં કોંગ્રેસનાં કાર્યકર્તાશ્રીઓ અને સામાજિક આગેવાનશ્રીઓને ભારતીય જનતા પાર્ટીનો ખેસ પહેરાવી પાર્ટીમાં જોડ્યા.… pic.twitter.com/6AgUoMJJyI

— C R Paatil (@CRPaatil) <a href=«https://twitter.com/CRPaatil/status/1762443737035116993?ref_src=» https: class="" rel=«nofollow, noopener» target="_blank">February 27, 2024

He returned to Parliament five years later and served as the Minister of State for Railways in the UPA 1 government. Five years later, he lost to Ramsinh again and then moved to organisational