AHMEDABAD: In a jolt to opposition Congress in Gujarat, where elections are due this year, an
influential tribal MLA of the party resigned the legislator post and joined the ruling BJP on Tuesday.
Khedbramha MLA Ashwin Kotwal tendered his resignation to Assembly Speaker Neemaben Acharya and later joined the saffron party in the presence of state chief C R Patil at Gujarat BJP headquarters ‘Shree Kamalam’. With Kotwal’s resignation, the strength of Congress in the Assembly has come down to 63. The ruling camp has 111 MLAs. Kotwal, who hails from the tribal community, is keen to contest the next election.
The resignation comes amid efforts of the ruling party to woo tribal voters, a vote bank of the Congress.
After joining the BJP, Kotwal told mediapersons that he was impressed by the Prime Minister’s “development work”. The turncoat said in 2007, when he was elected as MLA on a Congress ticket for the first time, he had met Modi in Gandhinagar. “Since then I may have been in the Congress but Modi has been residing in my heart,” he said.
Political analyst Mani Patel said Kotwal’s move would help the BJP. “He has been winning Khedbrahma for the last three terms, and he is influential. Tribal voters in north Gujarat have been with Congress till now. BJP has brought in Kotwal to break the tribal vote bank of the grand old party.”