Vadodara: A former six-time Congress MLA from the Petlad assembly seat, Niranjan Patel, joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday. The event, held in Anand in the presence of Gujarat BJP President C R Patil, saw several members from Congress, NCP, and AAP also joining the party alongside the ex-Congress MLA.

The event was organized by Mitesh Patel, the sitting MP from Anand and the BJP candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Niranjan resigned from the Congress party in 2022 after being denied a ticket to contest the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls. The 76-year-old had previously secured victory in the Petlad seat six times since 1990, except for the 2002 election.

During the event, Gujarat BJP Chief Patil welcomed the former Congressman and criticized the Congress party for playing divisive politics. Patil specifically criticized the Congress, including former Gujarat Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki, accusing them of adopting divisive politics with the KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, and Muslim) theory in the 1980s.

Later, without explicitly mentioning Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Patil criticized the Congress’s perspective on poverty, stating that poverty affects individuals across all communities, not just specific castes. He emphasized the removal of 25 crore people from poverty under Modi’s leadership.

The BJP chief also called on the public to forgive any mistakes made by MP Mitesh Patel and vote for PM Modi, stating, “If Miteshbhai has made any mistakes, we will rebuke him, but you have to look at Modi saheb and ensure that you win this seat for Modi saheb.” DeshGujarat