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Arjun Modhwadia, four other newly elected BJP legislators take oath in Gujarat
67-year-old Arjun Modhwadia, who took oath as BJP legislator, was the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly till March before he switched sides
Ahmedabad: Five Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmakers in Gujarat including four Congress turncoats were administered the oath of office by assembly speaker Shankar Chaudhary on Tuesday, raising the BJP’s strength in the 182-member house to 161.
The most prominent of the five freshly minted legislators was 67-year-old Arjun Modhwadia, who was the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly till March when he abruptly resigned from the assembly and the Congress and joined the BJP. Modhwadia, a three-time legislator who had spent four decades in the Congress, contested from the Porbandar seat on a BJP ticket and won against the Congress candidate by a margin of over 116,000 votes.
The other three politicians, who resigned their seats and crossed over from the Congress to the BJP, were CJ Chavda (Vijapur), Arvind Ladani (Manavadar) and Chirag Patel (Khambhat). The fifth legislator, Dharmendrasinh Vaghela, won the Vaghodia assembly segment, as an Independent in 2022 and had resigned to fight on a BJP ticket.
CJ Chavda, also a three-term MLA, won the Vijapur bypolls with a margin of over 56,000 votes against Congress’ Dinesh Patel. Chavda had quit the Congress in January.
The BJP fielded Arvind Ladani to recontest the Manavadar bypolls in Junagadh district. Ladani walked out of the Congress in March this year, citing pressure from his constituents.
Chirag Patel, who resigned from the Congress in December 2023 complaining of factionalism within the party, was re-elected from the Khambhat assembly.
There is speculation that chief minister Bhupendra Patel may expand his council of ministers following the five victories.
The BJP retained power for the seventh straight term In the 2022 Gujarat assembly elections, winning 156 of the 182 seats. The Congress won 17 seats, the Aam Aadmi Party won five, the Samajwadi Party ended up with one seat while Independents won three seats. AAP’s strength in the assembly was reduced to four after Bhupendra Bhayani, who won the Visavadar seat on an AAP ticket, quit the party and joined the BJP. The Election Commission is yet to hold a fresh election on the Visavadar seat because an election petition filed by the BJP candidate in 2022 is still pending in the Gujarat high court.
