New Delhi: In another jolt to the opposition Congress on the second day in a row ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls, senior MLA Bhagwan Barad on Wednesday, November 9, resigned as a legislator and from the primary membership of the Congress party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Barad (63), who had won the Talala seat in Gir Somnath district in 2017, sent his resignation letter to Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor and also handed it over to Speaker Nimaben Acharya.The development comes a day after 10-time Congress MLA and tribal leader, Mohansinh Rathva, resigned and joined the ruling BJP.Barad, also known as Bhaga Barad, was welcomed into the BJP fold by state general secretary Pradipsinh Vaghela at the party’s media centre in Ahmedabad.Barad told reporters that he had decided to quit the party after consulting at least 4,000 of his supporters and will fight the next month’s elections if BJP wants him to, but added that he was not joining BJP with any pre-condition to get a poll ticket.Gujarat will vote in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.“I am joining BJP as I want to be a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development campaign. I am joining that party without any pre-condition or commitment. I will fight polls if the party wants. I will campaign for other candidates if I am asked to. I will work for the BJP to ensure its victory in nine seats in Gir Somnath and Junagadh districts,” Barad said.Barad is an influential leader of the Ahir community. He won the Talala constituency in 2007 and also in 2017. His brother Jashubhai had also represented this seat in 1998 and 2012.Talala is one of the four Assembly segments in the Gir Somnath district. In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP could not open its account in this district whereas Congress bagged all four seats.In 2019, Barad was disqualified as a legislator by the then Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi after a local court sentenced him to two years and nine months in jail in a two-decade-old illegal mining case.Months later, Barad’s suspension was revoked after the Gujarat high court stayed his conviction till the pendency of his appeal.On the other hand, senior Congress legislator Mohansinh Rathva, who walked over to the BJP on Tuesday, November 8, denied the allegation against him that he was doing so because Congress had denied a ticket to his son in the upcoming polls.“The Congress never said that they will not give me a ticket (for my son). I decided before Congress said anything about it. I was impressed by the work done by the BJP government and PM Narendra Modi in our tribal areas. That is the reason why I have decided to join BJP,” he had said, after crossing over to the BJP.Rathva is a 10-time member of the legislative assembly. He currently represents the Chhota Udaipur (ST) constituency in central Gujarat. He had represented Pavi-Jetpur (ST) constituency in the Chhota Udepur district before 2012.On Tuesday, after sending his resignation, the former Congress leader reached the Gujarat BJP office in Ahmedabad where he was inducted into the party by state general secretaries Bhargav Bhatt and Pradeepsinh Vaghela.In the 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls, the Congress had won 77 seats restricting BJP’s tally to 99 in the 182-member House.(With PTI inputs)
