‘Party a full-time job...know to tell donkey apart from a horse’

For change, you have to win power or become a partner in power, says Modhwadia

VETERAN POLITICIAN Arjun Modhwadia, who has been the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader, defected to the BJP recently. Now he is the BJP candidate for the by-election to the Porbandar Assembly seat, which fell vacant after he moved from the Congress to the BJP. In an interview to The Indian Express ,he talks about the problems in his former party, and his new political course. Excerpts:

How did local BJP leaders, the people of Porbandar react to your switch?

When a person deserts one party and joins another, there will naturally be some resistance. For years, I fought against the BJP with all sincerity. But to my surprise and that of the entire state, it welcomed me with affection into its fold. Neither in public nor privately has there been any protest. The reason for that is people in Porbandar and the BJP have deep faith in decisions taken by the party leadership.

So, even former minister Babu Bokhiria, who was my rival in successive elections, has welcomed me… The reason is that a political worker thinks of the changes he can bring in people’s lives. When Modi became CM (of Gujarat), he tried to bring about a change and managed to do that. Now, he is trying to do the same in the country.

You participated in a Vibrant Gujarat event in Porbandar in October 2023, while still in the Congress.

I attended the event in the interest of Porbandar. I had not made up my mind (about joining the BJP) at that time. The problem was the void left in the party in the absence of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Ahmed Patel... It was not due to any problems in the state unit. But in Delhi, decisions are taken by non-political people — those who haven’t fought elections themselves or have got others to contest -- those who have never worked at the grassroots, or haven’t understood the people’s problems. Due to this, the Congress has today lost even the status of the Opposition party in the legislature. In fact, now there is a big question mark on the very existence of the party unit. I tried for seven-eight years to change the state of affairs. But nothing happened...

What was the last straw?

Running a (political) party can’t be a part-time job. Your job is not done by merely addressing a public meeting and criticising Modi. You have to draw the people in and connect with them… The Congress’ stand on the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is one example. You don’t give a damn about what the people’s sentiments are… Here is a scenario wherein you are not connecting even with your own workers, not even your close colleagues... They are unable to identify who is powerful and who isn’t. They are unable to tell a donkey from a horse. So, there was a series of events whose details I don’t want to go into. I felt that I won’t be able to change the state of affairs. In such a scenario, if someone like Narendrabhai and Amitbhai (Shah), against whom I have fought for many years with full commitment to the party (Congress), invite you sincerely to join their party, I don’t think anyone would like to continue in the suffocating environment...

Almost a year before the 2022 elections, I had warned the (Congress) leadership... that in Gujarat, we were fighting an existential battle. The perception was that the Congress was nowhere, and this needed to be changed... However, an aide of a very senior leader who was present told me it was I who was conceding defeat before contesting the elections.

Express photo Modhwadia is BJP candidate from Porbandhar Assembly seat, which he won for Congress in 2022.