Gandhinagar: Former minister Jay Narayan Vyas who had left Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier this month today joined the Congress party along with his son Sameer Vyas at the State Congress headquarters in Ahmedabad in the presence of Congress party’s national president Kharge. Vyas had yesterday campaigned for Congress candidate Chandanji Thakor in Sidhpur assembly seat area.

Vyas had lost the last two assembly polls as BJP candidates with a margin of over 17,000 votes against Chandanji Thakor in 2017 and against Balwantsinh Rajput by a margin of over 25,000 votes in 2012. He had also lost the Sidhpur election in 2002 by a margin of over 10,000 votes. In 2007 he had been successful to win on this seat by a margin of merely less than 2500 votes. There was uneasiness among party cadres and locals after Vyas, then the minister placed his son to head the local Agriculture Produce Market Committee(APMC). When Vyas was representing Sidhpur in the State assembly, he would mostly live in his Ahmedabad-based bungalow, about 114 km away.

Former minister Jay Narayan Vyas, who quit BJP earlier this month after he was denied ticket, joins the Congress party along with his son Sameer Vyas. pic.twitter.com/BleI7UkZq0

— DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) November 28, 2022

Vyas who had been Health and Tourism minister in the past had started criticizing BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his works in his Facebook posts and also in his TV debate show that he anchored first and later participated as a panelist. Interestingly, while Vyas says that Sidhpur is a more suitable constituency for Congress to win, the BJP got 11,000 + votes in 2014 and plus 10,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the Sidhpur assembly seat.

Vyas when resigned from BJP, had announced that he would contest Sidhpur from another party. However, neither Congress nor AAP fielded him, apparently knowing well that he would not be able to win.

DeshGujarat