Former Gujarat Congress legislator Govabhai Rabari joined the BJP on Monday, ending his three-decade-old affiliation with the Congress in the State.
A three-time MLA, Mr. Rabari was inducted into the BJP by State chief C.R. Patil, who called the former legislator a prominent OBC leader in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat.
Mr. Rabari, who had contested eight Assembly elections and won three, said the BJP, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was undertaking development works for all communities in the State. He alleged that the Congress had relinquished the politics of development.
In the last Assembly poll in 2022, the Congress fielded his son Sanjay, who too lost in Banaskantha, a district where the party won as many as four seats of the total 17 it won across the State.
According to Congress insiders, Mr. Rabari was apparently forced to resign from the Congress and join the BJP to protect his directorship in the Deesa Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), a local cooperative body.
