BJP doesn't trust its own, says Guj Cong chief on defections

The BJP does not trust its own leaders and so was poaching those from the Congress, said the opposition party's state unit chief Amit Chavda Saturday.

He was reacting to Jawahar Chavda being inducted into the Vijay Rupani cabinet on Saturday, a day after the former quit the Congress as well as the Legislative Assembly and joined the ruling BJP.

Jawahar Chavda, a four-time MLA, represented Manavadar seat in Junagadh district and is considered to be an influential OBC leader from the Ahir community.

He had submitted his resignation from the House to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi on Friday.

"The BJP is staring at defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. It does not trust on its own workers and lacks capable leadership. This is the reason why the BJP is getting Congress leaders to join it using greed and threats," state unit chief Amit Chavda said.

"BJP workers spend their entire life for the party but get no value within it. Just to win polls, the BJP takes away winning Congress candidates and makes them ministers," he said, adding that the people of Gujarat would give a befitting reply to this "insult" of its "mandate".

He claimed such movement by some leaders to the ruling party would not demoralise Congress workers who will continue to fight for the people.

Apart from Jawahar Chavda, Gujarat Governor O P Kohli Saturday also administered the oath of office to Jamnagar West MLA Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, who crossed over from Congress to BJP ahead of 2017 Assembly polls, and Yogesh Patel, BJP MLA from Manjalpur in Vadodara.