New Delhi: More than two dozen senior Congress leaders have deserted the Congress in the last seven years and have joined the BJP since 2013.
The year 2013 saw the beginning of the exodus of Congress leaders as it had become clear by then that the Congress-led UPA was going to lose the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Narendra Modi, was going to come to power.
At least 30 of these senior leaders, who deserted the Congress included former Union Ministers, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha members and scores of former state presidents and state ministers.
Among the senior Congress leaders who served as Union Ministers in the Congress government but decided to leave the party, were former External Affairs Minister in the UPA government, S.M. Krishna, former Union Power Minister in the UPA government and one of the “future” leaders of the Congress, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the BJP earlier this year. Rao Inderjit Singh, who served as Textile Minister in the UPA government, joined the BJP just ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Singh has served as a Union Minister in the NDA government since 2014.
Several former Chief Ministers of the Congress have also switched sides in the last few years. The list includes veteran Congress leader N.D Tiwari, who also served as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and in the Union Cabinet. Tiwari had joined the BJP in 2017 along with his wife Ujjwala and son Rohit.
Narayan Rane, a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who is a known strongman in Konkan politics, joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 state Assembly elections along with his Cabinet colleague Harshvardhan Patil.
One of the oldest Congressmen from Gujarat and former Chief Minister of the state, Shankersinh Vaghela, too, joined the BJP in 2019. Vaghela had also served in the Union Cabinet in the UPA-I and later as the Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly.
A host of Congress leaders from Uttarakhand joined the BJP just ahead of the state Assembly elections in 2016. These leaders included former Congress Chief Minister from Uttarakhand, Vijay Bahuguna, former Speaker of the Uttarakhand assembly Yashpal Arya, Haran Singh who served as minister in the Congress government; Satpal Maharaj, who was minister in the Congress government, joined the BJP in March 2014. He still remains a minister in the current BJP government in Uttarakhand.
In Uttar Pradesh, too, several senior Congress leaders left the party to join the BJP in the last couple of years. Just before the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, former Congress leaders Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was once a vocal Congress face on television, decided to join the BJP citing intra-party politics. Joshi has in the past served as the state president of the Congress in UP. She has also served as the women’s wing president of the Congress. She is currently a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.
Another former president of the Congress’ Uttar Pradesh unit and Lok Sabha MP, Jagdambika Pal had joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Even leaders like Ravi Kishan (Bhojpuri TV actor), Amarpal Tyagi, Dhirender Singh, who once held plum portfolios in Uttar Pradesh Congress, jumped ship right before the Assembly elections in 2016.
From Chhattisgarh, former Congress working president, Ramdayal Uikey joined the BJP in 2018. He was inducted into the BJP by the then national president of the party, Amit Shah, in Chhattisgarh.
In the Northeast, Chief Minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh joined the BJP leaving his erstwhile party, the Congress in 2016. He joined the BJP citing differences with the then Congress CM of Manipur, Ibobi Singh. In Arunachal Pradesh, the present BJP Chief Minister, Prema Khandu also left the Congress in 2016 before the Assembly elections.
The story is similar in Assam where the BJP government’s present Deputy Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma was once the closest aide of former Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, but shifted to the BJP ahead of the Assam Assembly elections in 2016.
Several MPs have also switched sides in the last few years, including Rajya Sabha MP and chief whip of the Congress in the Upper House, Bhubaneswar Kalitia, former Congress president of Assam, Hiranya Bhuyan and former Rajya Sabha MP, Santiuse Kujur.
Even former ministers from the Sheila Dikshit Cabinet and senior leader of the Congress from Delhi, Krishna Tirath, Raj Kumar Chauhan, Congress Mahila Morcha president Barkha Singh have left the Congress and joined the BJP in the last few years.
Tom Vadakkan, a senior Congress spokesperson, joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 elections, taking many by surprise.
Several MLAs from different states have quit the Congress and in some cases, their defections have also led to the toppling of the governments in those states.
For example, in the case of Karnataka, at least 14 Congress and JD(S) MLAs had quit the party last year, resulting in the fall of the Congress-JD(S) government in the state. These MLAs had quit the party to join the BJP, after which the BJP came back to power. Similarly, in the case of Madhya Pradesh, at least 22 Congress MLAs along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, switched to the BJP, resulting in the toppling of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government.
In Goa, 10 out of 15 MLAs jumped the Congress ship to go with the BJP-led government in Goa. The Congress presently has only 5 MLAs in the coastal state.
Even scores of leaders from other political parties have joined the BJP in the last couple of years. For instance, former Samajwadi Party spokesperson, Gaurav Bhatia joined the BJP in 2019 citing inner party politics in the Samajwadi Party.
Scores of Trinamool Congress leaders have also joined the BJP in the last couple of years and many have gone on to become MPs from the BJP and are now holding positions of importance in the Bengal BJP unit.
Some senior Congress leaders have also left the party in the last few years, but have not yet joined any political party. These leaders include former Union Minister Jayanti Natarajan and G.K. Vasan who was a Union Minister in the UPA government.
As recently as earlier this week, Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan and former Union Minister Sachin Pilot quit the Congress and, according to sources, at least two senior national level Congress leaders, one from Uttar Pradesh and the other a Delhi-based professional, are waiting to jump ship any moment.