AHMEDABAD: Congress MLA from Khedbramha Ashwin Kotwal tendered his resignation as MLA to Gujarat Assembly Speaker Neemaben Acharya on Tuesday morning. He subsequently joined the BJP in the presence of Gujarat BJP president C R Patil at the party headquarters Shree Kamalam. With Kotwal’s resignation, the Congress’ strength in the assembly has come down to 63. The ruling BJP has 111 MLAs in the assembly. Kotwal who hails from the ST community is keen to contest the next election.
After joining the BJP, Kotwal told the media that he was impressed by the Prime Minister’s development work and his love and affection for the tribals. He said that in 2007, when he was elected MLA from Congress for the first time, he met Modi in Gandhinagar and since then he may have been in the Congress but Modi resides in his heart.
Asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a 'development man', he said the PM, who was then Chief Minister of Gujarat, made a big change in the lives of the tribals. Along with the arrangement of housing and food for them, he also arranged for the poor children of the tribals to study in private schools in the cities and provided them financial facilities.
Kotwal said that only Prime Minister Modi and the BJP can do good for the tribals. He said that despite being elected MLA from the Congress, he was not happy with the party's policies. The Congress never showed seriousness about the development of tribals. In Gujarat, the BJP did a lot of work for the development of the tribal community and the prosperity of the state during its rule, due to which the standard of living of the common people improved.
After resigning from the Congress, Kotwal reached the state BJP office with about two to three thousand of his supporters with singing and dancing. He expressed his happiness by playing the traditional musical instrument of the tribals. State BJP President CR Patil welcomed Kotwal into the party, placing the BJP's saffron cap on him.
Former Congress President Arjun Modhwadia said in this regard, "The Khedbrahma seat has been and will remain with Congress since Amar Singh Chaudhry. Wait until elections are held in November-December. We asked Ashwin Kotwal not to go anywhere, but he was in a hurry.”
According to political analyst Mani Patel, “Ashwin Kotwal has been winning the Khedbrahma seat for the last three terms. He is an influential tribal leader. Tribal votes play a role in North Gujarat from Ambaji to Dahod and they stayed with the Congress till 2017. Now in 2022, they have included Ashwin Kotwal in their party to break the tribal vote bank and increase their influence in the tribal areas of North Gujarat.”