Gandhinagar: After resigning from the Congress party on Monday, former Congress MLA and State Party President Arjun Modhwadia, along with Gujarat Congress’s Working President Ambrish Der and their supporters, joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today. The former Congress leaders donned saffron caps and scarves in the presence of Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil at the state party headquarters, ‘Shri Kamalam,’ in the state capital.

Arjun Modhwadia was the sitting MLA from Porbandar. He is the former Leader of the Opposition and former State Congress President. Modhwadia was the face of Congress when Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat, as he held the position of Leader of the Opposition and State Party Chief during Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister here.

In his resignation from the Congress, the three-term MLA Modhwadia stated “I voiced my dissent when Congress leadership declined invitation to Balak Ram Ram pranpratishtha mahotsav at Ayodhya. Prabu Ram is not just pujaniya to Hindus, but he is Aastha of Bharat. By declining invitation to witness pran pratishtha Mahotsav has hurt sentiments of people of India, Congress as a party failed to assess the sentiments of people. Since my dissent, I met scores of people who were offended in manner in which Congress party insulted Lord Ram by boycotting the Mahotsav in Ayodhya.”

Watch | Former Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia and Ambrish Der, who resigned from the party on Monday, join BJP along with others in Gandhinagar. https://t.co/kH0JPsszay pic.twitter.com/xBiRvVMEDq

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Another leader who joined the BJP is former Gujarat Congress’s Working President Ambrish Der, who also resigned from the party on Monday. Der is a former legislator from the Rajula assembly seat in the Amreli district and hails from the Ahir community.