leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela is losing his supporters in the Congress party. In little over one year, more than 20 Ministers, once part of Vaghela Government in 1996-97, have left the Congress and retreated to the saffron party.
The process of migration of Vaghela’s ‘men’ from the Congress to BJP initiated ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections in 2012. Since then nearly 22 former Ministers have joined the saffron brigade that included stalwarts like Vithal Radadia, Vipul Chaudhary, Prabhatsinh Chauhan, Parbat Patel and Jasabhai Barad to name a few.
Those who are still with the Congress are believed to be in touch with the senior State BJP leaders. They are former State Finance Minister Babu Meghji Shah, Dilip Parikh, CK Raulji and Dr Anil Joshiyara.
If sources in the BJP have to be believed, re-entry of Shah and Joshiyara is almost certain. Parikh is almost inactive in politics. In fact, political observers are not denying the possibility of Vaghela’s return in the BJP fold before the lok Sabha elections.
Vaghela’s saffron background is well-known. He was one of the few veteran leaders in Gujarat, who toiled to build the saffron party in the State. It was only after the BJP came to power with absolute majority in 1995, his differences with Keshubhai Patel and Narendra Modi surfaced, which resulted into revolt against the Patel Government.
The strong Kshatriya leader popularly known as ‘Bapu’ walked away with his 46 MlAs. later, he formed his own political outfit Rashtria Janata Party (RJP) and went on to become the Chief Minister following the infamous ‘Khajuraho Coup’ in 1996 with outside support of the Congress. Most of his MlAs became part of his ‘jumbo’ cabinet or got important postings in the state run PSUs. However, in the Assembly elections in 1998, RJP could not perform well and ultimately merged with the Congress.
Though, Vaghela kept on getting various positions within the Congress party, he couldn’t promote his supporters there barring few. Despite the fact, majority of them remained loyal to him. However, it was only before the 2012 Gujarat assembly elections, gradually Vaghela’s ‘men’ started to migrate back to their origin.
On the other hand, Bapu’s Betenoire and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s political stature has gone up. He started to be seen as PM candidate. Modi also opened the door for the Congress dissidents that gave wind to the fire and pave way for the ‘rehabilitation’ of staunch Vaghela supporters in BJP.