Ahmedabad: Amid the heated political season ahead of the local body elections, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from the Matar Assembly seat, Kesarisinh Solanki, formally joined the Congress party on Tuesday.

He was inducted into the party in the presence of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President Amit Chavda, where he donned the Congress sash. A large number of his supporters were also present at the state party office on the occasion.

Kesarisinh Solanki was elected as an MLA from Matar for the first time in the 2014 by-election and later won the seat again in 2017. However, in 2022, he was not given a ticket to contest the Assembly elections, after which he briefly left the BJP and joined the Aam Aadmi Party, only to return to the BJP after some time.

At the time, his ticket was cancelled because he reportedly cross-voted in favour of Congress candidate Bharatsinh Solanki instead of the BJP nominee in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Later, in July 2025, he was suspended from the party’s primary membership by the BJP’s Kheda district president.

Controversies and Allegations

Kesarisinh Solanki has also been embroiled in other controversies in the past. In 2021, he was caught gambling at a resort near Shivrajpur in Panchmahal district, following which a Halol court sentenced him to two years in prison.

He had, in the past, also levelled serious allegations of corruption against institutions such as BJP-ruled Amul Dairy and the Kheda District Cooperative Bank. DeshGujarat