Guj BJP leaders join Congress

: Former BJP MLA Shamji Chauhan and former Rajkot mayor Ashok Dangar joined the Congress Tuesday, saying “injustice” is being meted out to the Other Backward Class (OBC) communities under the BJP rule in Gujarat.

The two were inducted into the Congress by the party’s state unit president Amit Chavda and in-charge Rajiv Satav during a function at party headquarters in Ahmedabad.

While Chauhan belongs to the politically influential Koli community, Dangar hails from the Ahir community.

Chauhan was elected from the Chotila assembly seat in Surendrangar district in 2012 on a BJP ticket. He resigned from the BJP in November last year after being denied ticket from the same seat for the assembly polls held in December. In 2016, he was appointed parliamentary secretary by chief minister Vijay Rupani.

On the other hand, it was a homecoming for Dangar, who had joined the BJP in 2012 after quitting the Congress. He was the mayor of Rajkot from 2000 to 2003, when the Congress was ruling the civic body.

According to Chavda, both the OBC leaders have joined the Congress without any precondition.

“Both these leaders have realised that promises made by the BJP governments, in Gujarat as well as at the Centre, have not been fulfilled, with the poor becoming more poor. Both these leaders are joining the Congress to fight injustice against the OBCs and the poor,” Chavda said.

AHMEDABAD