Gandhinagar: Buses full of Congress leaders, elected members, and cadres today joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here in the presence of State party chief CR Patil and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel among others. According to party’s media convener, the number of Congress and AAP members who joined BJP was over 2,000.

Former leader of opposition of Rajkot district panchayat Arjun Khatariya was among them who today joined BJP at the State party headquarters Shri Kamalam. Four district panchayat members of the Congress party from Jasdan, Upleta and Vinchhiya also joined BJP along with Khatariya.

Narenrasinh Jadeja, APMC Chairman of Kotda Sangani, Vice Chairman Babubhai Savaliy, Sureshbhai Lunsariya, director of milk federation and others also joined BJP.

Minaben Thaker, vice president of State Congress, Kishorsinh Jadjea, district chief of Seva Dal, taluka panchayat member, Fariyad cell chief, Taluka Congress chief of Dhoraji, number of taluka panchayat and district panchayat members, office bearers of local Congress and APP organizations, those who had contested panchayat polls, former corporator, former organizational office bearers of Congress from number of locations across Saurashtra, Central Gujarat and other areas joined BJP in this function.

A noticeable number of Congress cadres and local-level leaders joined by their supporters joined the BJP from Savli, Mahisagar district and other areas.

Mahendrasinh Rana, the former sarpanch of Bhadarva village, stated that the reason for bidding farewell to Congress is the wave of Sanatan in the nation ahead of the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22. “We are all going to be dedicated and join in that wave. A temple for Lord Shriram is going to be built. Influenced by this, we have said ‘Ram Ram’ to Congress and are going to take the saffron of the BJP,” he added.

Some Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders who achieved thousands of votes but couldn’t win assembly polls also joined BJP today.

Some local-level cooperative, social, and community leaders also joined the BJP in the function. The ruling party has formed a team to induct Congress and AAP leaders to BJP ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The team is led by Rajkot based party leader Bharat Boghra.  DeshGujarat