NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUNE 9
Congress leader Jitin Prasada joined the BJP on Wednesday, in a shot in the arm for the saffron party as it prepares for assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year.
He joined the BJP in presence of Union minister Piyush Goyal and its chief spokesperson Anil Baluni.
Prasada told reporters after joining the BJP that it was truly the only national party which worked in an institutional way, while others were all about a few people or confined to specific regions.
He also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership of the country and also lauded other senior party leaders.
Noting that politics is for public service, Prasada said he realised he cannot do it in the Congress and could not protect people’s interests.
Goyal heaped praised on him, lauding him as a leader of stature whose induction will boost the BJP. It will also help him in serving the society, the minister added.
The 47-year-old Prasada, a former Union minister, comes from a well known Brahmin family of Uttar Pradesh and was serving as the Congress leader in-charge of West Bengal before joining the BJP.
His father Jitendra Prasada was a noted Congress leader.
With the Congress in dire straits in Uttar Pradesh and he himself losing the Lok Sabha polls twice in a row, Prasada’s decision to join the BJP may help him politically at a time when the saffron party is working overtime to boost its ranks in preparation for the assembly polls.
It will also help the BJP keep Brahmins, a section of who are said to be unhappy with the party in Uttar Pradesh, in good humour in the politically important state of India, party sources said.
Speculation was rife even during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections of Prasada joining the BJP, but it is believed that the Congress leadership had then managed to persuade him against quitting the party.
Cong must reclaim position as India’s big tent party: Milind Deora
Soon after his Congress colleague Jitin Prasada quit the party to join the BJP, Milind Deora on Wednesday said the Congress must reclaim its position as India’s big tent party and asserted that it still has a strong bench which, if empowered and optimally utilised, can deliver.
A former chief of the Mumbai Congress, Deora, however, wished that several of his friends, peers and valued colleagues hadn”t left the party.
In an obvious reference to the development, Deora tweeted, “I believe in @INCIndia as a party that can & must reclaim its position as India’s big tent party. We still have a strong bench that if empowered & optimally utilised, can deliver.”
“I only wish that several of my friends, peers & valued colleagues hadn’t left us,” he said.
Deora, Prasada, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot were once considered as the young brigade of the Congress. They had also served in the erstwhile Congress government at the Centre. Scindia and Prasada have left for the BJP, while Pilot and Deora seem to be upset over certain issues in the party and repeatedly called for course correction.
