In December 2022, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stormed to power in Gujarat by winning a record 156 out of 182 seats and a vote share of 52.5%, there was a general sense that there was no need for it to induct leaders from the Opposition. After all, its domination in the State was nearly complete.
However, that was not the case. Nearly a year after the Assembly polls, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Bhupendra Bhayani became the first legislator to resign from the House. A week later, Congress MLA Chirag Patel also resigned from the Assembly. In January 2024, four-time Congress MLA C.J. Chavda followed suit. And in March, Arjun Modhwadia, a former president of the Gujarat Congress and a former Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, and Arvind Ladani, a first-time MLA from the Congress, also resigned and moved to the BJP.
All the four legislators cited the Congress leadership and the party’s “lack of direction” as the reasons for their move. Mr. Modhwadia stated in his resignation letter that the Congress’s decision to “decline the invitation of Lord Ram’s temple consecration on Ayodhya” pushed him to sever ties with the party, which, he said, had become “like an NGO”.
