New Delhi: Former Gujarat Congress chief and a staunch critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Arjun Modhwadia joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, March 5.
He joined the saffron party a day after he resigned from the grand old party alleging that it had failed to “assess the sentiments of the people of India” with its decision to not attend the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Modhwadia, a veteran Congress leader, and MLA from Porbandar joined the BJP in the presence of state party chief C.R. Patil along with former Congress working president Ambarish Der who had also resigned on Monday.
“The country got such a leader in the form of Modi ji, just like Sardar Saheb and Gandhiji. Similarly, Modi ji and Amit Shah ji are running the government. Today Congress’ communication with the public has broken, there is no hope, at this time I have joined the BJP to participate in Modi ji’s dream of a developed India. I am ready to work with double strength, ” he was quoted as saying by ANI after joining the BJP on Tuesday.
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Modhwadia said that he was starting a new “political innings” in his life.
आज मेरे जीवन के एक नए राजनीतिक पारी की शुरुआत है।
समाज के हर वर्ग में आर्थिक और सामाजिक परिवर्तन के उद्देश्य के साथ में राजनिती से जुड़ा था। मुझे विश्वास है की आदरणिय प्रधानमंत्रीश्री @narendramodi जी सक्षम और सबल नेतृत्व में अपने इस उद्देश्य को आगे बढ़ाने में सफल रहूँगा।
में… pic.twitter.com/zVNHPsfwq3
— Arjun Modhwadia (@arjunmodhwadia) March 5, 2024
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“I joined politics to bring economic and social change to all sections of the society. I am confident that under the capable leadership of prime minister Modi I will be able to fulfil this objective,” he wrote.
The Wire has reached out to Modhwadia for a comment.
On Monday, Modhwadia shared his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in which he said that the party had “failed to assess the sentiments of the people of India.”
Modhwadia said that he had “voiced his dissent” against the party’s decision to decline the invitation for the Ram Temple consecration ceremony on January 11.
I hereby relieve myself from all roles and responsibilities of the Indian National Congress party. pic.twitter.com/WgjmfaCZiS
— Arjun Modhwadia (@arjunmodhwadia) March 4, 2024
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“Prabhu Ram is not just Pujaniya to Hindus, but he is the Aastha of Bharat. By declining the invitation to witness the pran pratishtha mahotsav have hurt the sentiments of the people of India, Congress as a party failed to assess the sentiments of the people.”
Modhwadia said in the letter that since his dissent he had met scores of people who were “offended by the manner in which the Congress party insulted Lord Ram” by boycotting the event.
“To further distract and humiliate this pious occasion, Rahul Gandhi attempted to create ruckus in Assam which further angered our party cadres and citizens of Bharat,” he wrote.
On January 22, the day of the Ram Temple consecration ceremony, then on the Assam leg of the ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was stopped from visiting the Batadrava Than, the birthplace of the 15th-century Vaishnavite religious leader, Srimanta Sankardev. Subsequently, Gandhi sat down on the road along with other Congress supporters who sang ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’.
“Over and above since (the) last few years, I found myself helpless to contribute to the people my district Porbandar and the state of Gujarat,” Modhwadia said in his letter.
Modhwadia’s move to the BJP comes days before the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra enters the state on March 7.
Modhwadia had been with the Congress for over four decades and had served as the leader of the opposition in the state assembly along with being state unit chief. In the 2022 Gujarat assembly elections, he defeated BJP’s Babu Bokhiria in Porbandar.
In February, Modhwadia had lent his support to the unanimous resolution passed in the Gujarat Assembly lauding Modi for the successful consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple. Speaking in the assembly, Modhwadia said that it was former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who had allowed the foundation stone laying ceremony at the site in 1989.
Earlier, however, Modhwadia had been a staunch critic of Modi, and had also drawn the ire of the Election Commission.
In 2012, the poll body reprimanded Modhwadia for referring to Modi as a monkey who had challenged the lion (Manmohan Singh), according to a report in Times of India.
In 2019, Modhwadia took a swipe at Modi’s 56-inch chest and said only “donkeys have a chest of 56 inches”.
“A fit person has a chest of 36 inches, a body-builder can have a chest of 42, it is only donkeys who have a chest of 56 inches, and bulls have a chest of 100 inches,” he was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express.
Modhwadia had also questioned Modi’s air travels during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
“When he was Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi travelled by air 56 times on government expense before Lok Sabha elections. Now, BJP should repay that money to the government treasury and Modi should explain such serious allegations about him,” Modhwadia was quoted as saying by PTI.
