On April 8, former Congress leader and the great-grandson of C Rajagopalachari, CR Kesavan, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He resigned from Congress in February. He said, “I want to thank you for inducting me into the world’s largest political party-BJP, especially on a day when our PM is in Tamil Nadu,” after joining the BJP.
“PM Modi’s people-centric policies, corruption-free governance and reform-led inclusive development agenda have transformed India from a fragile economy to the 5th largest economy in the world,” he said.
He said, “I know people in my house who got ‘pucca’ house through PM Awas Yojana. 3 crore houses have been built…Amit Shah ji once said that DBT was earlier ‘Dealer Broker Transfer’, but now it has become ‘Direct Benefit Transfer,” praising the PM.
He announced his decision to quit Congress stating that he has not seen any “vestige of the value that made him work for the party for over two decades”.
“I can no longer in good conscience say that I concur with what the Party presently symbolizes, stands for nor seeks to propagate. This is why I had recently declined an organisational responsibility at the national level and also refrained from participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
It is pertinent to note that recently many Congress leaders have resigned to join the BJP. The prominent Congress leaders who resigned to join the BJP are as follows:
N Kiran Kumar Reddy
On April 7, former Congress leader and last Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh N Kiran Kumar Reddy joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Prahlad Joshi, general secretary Arun Singh and MP K Laxman at BJP headquarters.
On March 13, N Kiran Kumar Reddy sent his resignation to Congress’ national president Mallikarjun Kharge writing, “Please accept this letter as my resignation from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress.”
He became undivided Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister on November 11, 2010, but resigned on March 10, 2014, to protest against Congress’ decision to bifurcate the state. He resigned from the Congress in 2014 too, to protest against the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and carve out Telangana. However, he re-joined the Congress in 2018 after meeting with Congress leader and former MP Rahul Gandhi.
AK Antony’s son Anil Antony joins BJP
On April 6, Congress veteran and former Union Defence Minister AK Antony’s son Anil Antony joined the BJP in the presence of Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and V Muraleedharan, Kerala BJP Chief K Surendran and other party leaders Tarun Chugh and Anil Baluni.
On January 23, Anil Antony tweeted “I have resigned from my roles in @incindia @INCKerala. Intolerant calls to retract a tweet, by those fighting for free speech. I refused. @facebook wall of hate/abuses by ones supporting a trek to promote love! Hypocrisy thy name is! Life goes on. Redacted resignation letter below.”
He wrote in his redacted resignation letter, “However, by now I have been made well aware that you, your colleagues, and the coterie around the leadership are only keen to work with a bunch of sycophants and chamchas, who would unquestionably be at your beck and call. This has become the lone criterion of merit. Sadly, we don’t have much common ground,” criticising Congress.
He had questioned the Congress’s stance on the anti-Modi BBC documentary which was released on January 23 and tweeted, “Despite large differences with BJP, I think those in placing views of BBC, a state-sponsored channel with a long history of prejudices, and of Jack Straw, the brain behind the Iraq war, over institutions is setting a dangerous precedence, will undermine our sovereignty.”
Jaiveer Shergill
On August 2022, Jaiveer Shergill resigned from his position as the former national spokesperson for Congress and from the party. He presented his resignation to Congress’s then-acting President Sonia Gandhi claiming that the decision-makers were no longer in touch with the youth’s expectations. He joined the BJP on December 22, 2022.
Senior Himachal Congress leader Harsh Mahajan
On September 28, 2022, Harsh Mahajan quit Congress and joined the BJP in presence of Union Minister Piyush Goyal and general secretary Vinod Tawde. He was a senior Congress leader from Himachal Pradesh and was considered a Virbhadra Singh loyalist.
He criticised the Congress claiming that only Pratibha Singh and her son Vikramaditya Singh mattered in the Himachal Congress. Pratibha Singh replied claiming, “The Congress cannot be weakened by some people deserting it.”
Former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh
In September 2022, former Congress leader and Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh joined the BJP after merging his party, Punjab Lok Congress, with the BJP. He quit the Congress to form his own party after his unceremonious exit from the party over differences with top leadership. He was inducted into the BJP in Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju and Narendra Singh Tomar’s presence.
“Captain has always held the country over the party. I am very happy that today his Punjab Lok Congress has merged with the BJP. I welcome him and his followers to the party. We are all aware that Punjab is a border state. Security of border states is paramount since it is connected with the security of the nation. Hence, it is imperative to ensure there is security in Punjab,” Narendra Singh Tomar said while welcoming Amarinder Singh to the BJP.
Himanta Biswa Sarma
A key strategist in the then-ruling Congress in Assam in 2015 and the rest of the Northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma ended his 23 years of association with the grand old party in 2015 and joined the BJP.
Himanta Biswa Sarma’s 1,600-word resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi in 2015 says: “Rahul Gandhi was arrogant to me and Assam Congress MLAs who wanted Tarun Gogoi’s ouster, and said it was his prerogative to change chief ministers. He believed he was mightier than the people of Assam. He is self-serving and insecure and has whimsical idiosyncrasies. My wife and I were humiliated. The party promotes despotic family politics. It betrayed the people of Assam.”
However, since he joined the BJP he has become one of the prominent leaders. He serves as the Chief Minister for Assam and is often considered the reason for BJP’s growing popularity in the northeastern states.
Jyotiraditya Scindia
Jyotiraditya Scindia, who has a considerable influence amongst the voters in Madhya Pradesh, ended his decades-long association with the Congress and joined the BJP in 2020. While joining the saffron camp, Scindia had said that Congress is not what it used to be.
He joined BJP with a bunch of party MLAs from Kamal Nath’s Government in Madhya Pradesh which led the saffron party to return to power in Madhya Pradesh.
I wanted to serve the people of my state and country. But I could not do this anymore within this party,” he said. He is now serving as Minister of Civil Aviation in the Modi Government.
Jitin Prasada
In June 2021, former Congress leader and former Union Minister Jitin Prasada joined the BJP after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence.
He said, “I have a three-generation connection with Congress, so I took this important decision after a lot of deliberation. In the last 8-10 years I have felt that if there is one party that is truly national, it is BJP. Other parties are regional but this is a national party,” upon joining the BJP.
RPN Singh
Kunwar Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh, a member of the royal family of Padrauna, Kushinagar in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and former Union minister also left the Congress party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2022. He was considered a member of ‘Team Rahul Gandhi’ in Congress.
RPN Singh was among the Congress leaders who had opposed the party’s stand on the Narendra Modi government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. He apparently told the Congress leadership to visit his constituency, Padrauna and Kushinagar to ‘get the sense on the ground’ before opposing the Modi government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 in Kashmir.
Ghulam Nabi Azad’s resignation
It is pertinent to note that while various Congress leaders have quit the party in the recent past to join the BJP, most of them growing intolerance and a Gandhi family-centric attitude for their exit.
On August 26, 2022, former Congress veteran and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad also resigned from the party. He wrote, “The Indian National Congress has lost both the will and the ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India,” in his resignation letter.
He wrote, “Unfortunately after the entry of Shri Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January, 2013 when he was appointed as Vice President by you, the entire Consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him,” in his resignation letter addressing former Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Furthermore, he said that Rahul Gandhi’s tearing the government ordinance in 2013 during a press conference was a glaring example of his immaturity.
Furthermore, he claimed that his recommendations for the Congress had not been implemented properly, he said, “Unfortunately, these recommendations are lying in the storeroom of the AICC for the past 9 years. In spite of my repeated reminders in person both to you and the then Vice President Shri Rahul Gandhi from 2013 onwards to implement these recommendations. However, no effort was made to even examine them seriously.”
He pointed out that Congress has suffered under Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s leadership since 2014. He said, “Under your stewardship since 2014 and subsequently that of Shri Rahul Gandhi, the INC has lost two Lok Sabha elections in a humiliating manner. It has lost 39 out of the 49 assembly elections held between 2014 – 2022. The Party only won four state elections and was able to get into a coalition situation in six instances. Unfortunately, today, the NIC is ruling in only two states and is a very marginal coalition partner in two other states,” in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.
On April 5, Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “Rahul Gandhi is the reason that I am not in Congress today. Many young and old deserted the party for the same reason.”
Referring to an anecdote when Himanta Biswa Sarma was about to leave the party in 2015, Ghulam Nabi Azad in a interview said, “I told him (Rahul Gandhi) that Himanta will be leaving the party. He said jaane do RSS mein. Every time a Congress leader talked of leaving, it was Rahul Gandhi’s taqiya kalam to say — jaane do. He did not even say BJP, he used to say RSS.” Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
“Congress doesn’t care about its senior leaders, they have a mentality of intolerance,” he added.
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