Flip works for most Congress turncoats, flops for BJP rebels

AHMEDABAD: A majority of Congress turncoats or their family members fielded by BJP emerged victors on Thursday in the Gujarat assembly polls as the saffron party coasted to a seventh straight victory in the state, powered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma.

But BJP rebels who contested as Independents weren’t so lucky, managing to win three seats, though they did cut into votes of both BJP and Congress.

Eight of the 13 former Congressmen who contested on BJP tickets won. Of the 19 Congress MLAs who resigned and joined BJP after the 2017 assembly election, despite Congress putting in one of its best performances in years, 11 MLAs or their immediate family members were given tickets by BJP in these polls. Two more from the Congress fold —Patidar leader Hardik Patel and ex-MLA Manilal Vaghela — joined BJP earlier this year and were also given tickets.
Other than Hardik, who had spearheaded the Patidar reservation stir, and Alpesh Thakor, the Congress star performer in 2017 who switched to BJP in 2019, the winners included Rajendrasinh Rathva, son of 10-time former Congress MLA and tribal strongman Mohansinh Rathva. Mohansinh quit Congress days before the election and joined BJP, which fielded his son. Rajendrasinh went on to defeat Congress candidate Sangramsinh Rathva, sonof former Union minister Naran Rathva, by over 29,000 votes.

Jitu Chaudhary, who was minister of state for fisheries and water resources in the Bhupendra Patel government, defeated Vasant Patel of Congress from the ST-reserved Kaprada seat of south Gujarat by over 32,000 votes. Chaudhary quit Congress in 2020 and won the bypoll on a BJP ticket, after which he was made a minister in 2021.
Bhagwan Barad, who quit as Congress MLA from Talala last month and joined BJP, defeated his nearest rival, Devendra Solanki, of AAP by over 20,000 votes.

Among BJP rebels who contested as Independents, heavyweight Dharmendrasinh Vaghela was the only one to win in the central region. Vaghela defeated Ashwin Patel of BJP by 14,006 votes in the Vaghodia seat in Vadodara. The other heavyweight rebel in the seat, Madhu Shrivastav, didn’t even get 15,000 votes.

In Vadodara district, BJP rebel Dinesh Patel was in the fray from Padra but finished third despite getting 51,109 votes.