Jharkhand BJP JP Bhai Patel joins Congress, may be fielded from Hazaribagh

Jai Prakash Bhai Patel contested and won his first assembly election on a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket after his father, the sitting lawmaker, died in 2011

RANCHI/NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whip in the Jharkhand assembly Jai Prakash Bhai Patel on Wednesday joined the Congress at the party headquarters in Delhi ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Jai Prakash Bhai Patel joined the Congress at the party headquarters in Delhi (Facebook/mlajpbhaipatel)

Patel, who represents the Mandu assembly seat in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, said he wanted to fulfil the dreams of his late father Tek Lal Mahto, a former MP, and made the switch because he had been unable to find a reflection of his father’s ideology in the NDA.

Patel also praised Rahul Gandhi for leading the Bharat Nyay Jodo Yatra and expressed confidence that the opposition’s INDIA bloc will win all of Jharkhand’s Lok Sabha 14 seats. “I have joined the Congress not for any greed or post but for ideology and to fulfil the dreams of my father had for the state,” Patel said.

A Congress leader said JP Bhai Patel could be fielded as the party’s candidate from the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seat that has voted BJP’s Jayant Sinha in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Patel contested and won his first assembly election on a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket after his father, the sitting lawmaker, died in 2011. The JMM fielded him again in the 2014 state elections and he won.

But Patel switched over to the BJP in October 2019 ahead of the state assembly elections and scraped through, winning the seat with just about 21% vote share as compared to 34% vote share in 2014.

BJP spokesperson Pratul Nath Shahdeo said he wished Patel well but he had clearly got into a sinking boat. “When the entire country is shouting Modi Modi, he has chosen to board a sinking boat. However, my best wishes to him,” he said.

AICC in-charge of Jharkhand Ghulam Ahmad Mir, who was present at the event, said Patel was not the only one who had been hoping to make the switch and claimed that many leaders from various parties in Jharkhand and West Bengal were in touch with the Congress for crossing over.