The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala  suffered a jolt on Saturday as Sandeep Varrier, a prominent spokesperson of the Hindutva party, declaring his decision to join the Indian National Congress, dumping his parent party. According to Varrier, it was the cold shouldering by the BJP leadership in the state that forced him to quit the party and open an account with the shop that sells love and affection.

"The BJP's Kerala president K Surendran is responsible for my action. He never liked me for reasons best known to him only. Surendran is emblematic of the state of affairs in the Kerala BJP which is the worst political system in the country," said Varrier after joining the Congress party at Palakkad, where he was accorded a ceremonial welcome.

Varrier said that the ideology he was pursuing till yesterday was full of mistakes and errors. "I was never a follower of Narendra Modi. From this moment on, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka  Gandhi Vadra are my leaders," said Varrier.

The BJP leader, who had put in years of work in the CPI(M) and the BJP before joining the Congress chose the grand old party overlooking the offers made by the comrades as well as Congress leaders. Surendran remained silent and jovial and initially, though he opened up  following the charges by Varrier. "Sandeep is upset because he could not be offered a seat in the last Lok Sabha Election. Anyway we hope that the Congress party would offer him a seat from Thrithala Assembly constituency in the next General Election," said Surendran.