Bittu makes it a baker’s dozen — how scions of former Congress CMs have flocked to BJP
The newest Congress dynast to stop the social gathering, Bittu follows in the footsteps of the so-known as younger guns Milind Deora, R.P.N. Singh, Sushmita Dev, Jitin Prasada, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, who had been once viewed as shut to Rahul Gandhi. While these Congress dynasts have cited factors ranging from the party’s “disconnect” from the people and “bankruptcy” to their pursuit of “development”, former Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha came up with a few other variables that could have led to their change.
“One, they are element of a dynasty, consequently experienced effortless obtain to the leading leadership. If that obtain received dented, for whatever rationale, they felt that they ended up dismissed or sidelined,” explained Jha, who was suspended from the celebration in 2020 after calling for a “reawakened and revitalised Congress”. Second, Jha reported, leaders who have duty or influence from a younger age are not employed to staying without having it for as well prolonged. “If they see they are becoming politically irrelevant, they start to get concerned,” he mentioned. The third element, in accordance to him, is that “coming from a political household also carries a specified baggage of residing up to specified social expectations or peer pressure”.Rahul Verma, a fellow at the Centre for Plan Research, reported electoral prospective buyers are typically powering this kind of choices. “…they really don’t see a political long term in the bash that they are in. They are moving to a social gathering they feel has a much better electoral prospect,” explained Verma.
But, Jha reported, the craze would reverse in favour of the Congress if it returned to electrical power. “If tomorrow, the Congress returns to electrical power, most of them would be much more than satisfied to return,” he stated.Verma agreed, indicating, “If you consider about the 1960s or 1970s, a lot of politicians would join the Congress social gathering. In some cases, the Congress used to poach (leaders from other parties). At the moment, the BJP is in a similar position.” “Any occasion that happens to be much better will entice politicians of all hues and colours mainly because it can supply them better electoral potential clients. In the stop, politicians are in the organization of politics. They want to brighten their job potential customers,” he included.ThePrint seems at 12 conditions like Bittu’s — scions of former Congress CMs switching to the BJP in excess of the past 10 years.
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Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of K. Karunakaran
Bittu joined the BJP just months immediately after former Kerala CM K. Karunakaran’s daughter, Padmaja Venugopal. While quitting the Congress earlier this thirty day period, she mentioned, “There must be a powerful management in every bash. In the Congress, there is no leadership. I have good respect for Sonia ji. But I just cannot see her. She didn’t give (me) an appointment.” Addressing a press meeting at the BJP headquarters, Venugopal reported that even though she was satisfied to have joined the social gathering, she was also a “little little bit tense” because she was with the Congress for lots of a long time.
Her signing up for was a shot in the arm for the BJP, which has been trying to obtain floor in the southern point out.Ashok Chavan, son of Shankarrao Chavan
Ashok Chavan has the difference of not only becoming the son of a chief minister but also a chief minister himself concerning 2008 and 2010. He joined the BJP past thirty day period. His father, Congress leader Shankarrao Chavan, served as the main minister of Maharashtra throughout the unexpected emergency from 1975 to 1977 and yet again from 1986 to 1988.Soon just after inducting the younger Chavan, the BJP nominated him to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. Though a well known leader of his time, Chavan shed the Nanded Lok Sabha seat in 2019 by more than 40,000 votes. From 2014 to 2019, he was the Congress main in the state.
He also served as a minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities, an alliance of the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Celebration, until 2022.Whilst signing up for the BJP, Chavan mentioned, “Taking (Primary Minister Narendra) Modi’s inspiration, I ought to be ready to function to Maharashtra’s and the country’s development.” Anil Antony, son of A.K. Antony
Anil Antony, the son of former Union defence minister and Kerala main minister A.K. Antony, joined the BJP final yr. A.K. Antony served as Kerala’s main minister three periods. Nevertheless he is no for a longer period active in politics, the 83-yr-aged has known as his son’s decision “wrong” and explained it pained him.
The BJP appointed Anil Antony as its national spokesperson shortly right after his induction. He will fight the impending Lok Sabha polls from Pathanamthitta as the occasion tries to develop its footprint in the state. “Every Congress employee believes they are doing work for a loved ones,” he claimed right after becoming a member of the BJP. In his resignation letter, he had attacked the Gandhis, saying they are “only eager to function with a bunch of sycophants and chamchas” who would “unquestionably” be at their “beck and call”.
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Om Prakash Pahadia, son of Jagannath Pahadia
Ahead of the 2023 Rajasthan assembly polls, BJP inducted Om Prakash Pahadia, the son of previous Rajasthan main minister Jagannath Pahadia, along with Vijendra Singh Shekhawat, the nephew of previous President Pratibha Patil.
The elder Pahadia, a Congress leader, was deemed near to Sanjay Gandhi and served as Rajasthan’s only Dalit main minister concerning 1980-81. He also served as governor of Haryana and Bihar in two unique stints. His son has been considerably less lucky. The Congress fielded him from the Weir assembly seat in Bharatpur in the 2013 state elections. But he missing the seat, previously held by his father. His mother, Shanti Pahadia, also a Congress member, was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in 1984.Raninder Singh, son of Amarinder Singh
Raninder Singh, who now writes “Modi ka Parivar” on his X bio, once fought with people on the system, expressing, “I am in (the) Congress, and I’m happy of it. What’s bugging you?”
A 4-time president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), he is the son of former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh.Amarinder Singh twice served as Punjab chief minister, from 2002 to 2007 and from 2017 to 2021. He joined the BJP in 2022, alongside with some customers of his spouse and children, including Raninder. In 2012, Raninder Singh fought the Punjab condition polls from Samana on a Congress ticket and shed. The Congress went on to form the authorities that calendar year.Jai Inder Kaur, daughter of Amarinder Singh
Like Raninder, his sister Jai Inder Kaur joined the BJP with other loved ones associates in September 2022.
Her mother, Preneet Kaur, has been elected to the Patiala Lok Sabha seat four periods, and it has been speculated that the BJP may well discipline possibly the mom or the daughter this time.Jai Inder Kaur now heads BJP’s Mahila Morcha in Punjab.Patiala is the stronghold of Amarinder Singh, who is a member of the region’s erstwhile royal loved ones. Just after leaving the Congress in 2021, Amarinder floated his individual celebration, Punjab Lok Congress. Kaur was the party’s vice president till it merged with the BJP.Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, son of N.D. Tiwari
Rohit Shekhar Tiwari joined the BJP in January 2017 with his 91-calendar year-aged father, former Congress chief N.D. Tiwari. It was a shot in the arm for the BJP, coming ahead of the point out assembly polls. But the young Tiwari was murdered in 2019, and a circumstance versus his wife is sub-judice.
N.D. Tiwari is the only politician to have served as chief minister of two states in the state. While in the Congress, he served as Uttar Pradesh main minister 3 occasions — 1976-77, 1984-85, and 1988-89 — and in Uttarakhand from 2002 to 2007. He also served as the Union external affairs minister below Rajiv Gandhi. After his tenure as Uttarakhand CM, he served as Andhra Pradesh governor from 2007 to 2009. Vishwajit Rane, son of Pratapsingh Rane
Goa wellbeing minister Vishwajit Rane is the son of Congress leader Pratapsingh Rane, a 7-time main minister of Goa. Vishwajit resigned from the Congress in 2017, citing the party’s failure to type the authorities despite staying the solitary premier occasion. His spouse, Deviya Rane, has also been a BJP MLA from Poriem because 2022. Her father-in-legislation beforehand held the seat after its constitution in 1989. Pratapsingh Rane proceeds to be in the Congress and is the party’s seniormost chief in the point out. Father and son sat on opposite sides in the assembly involving 2017 and 2022.
In 2022, Pratapsingh Rane stepped back and declined to fight the point out elections following the Congress had currently declared his candidature.
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Pema Khandu, son of Dorjee Khandu
Five decades after his father, then Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu, died in an air crash, Pema Khandu became main minister of the condition in 2016. Like his father, Pema Khandu was sworn in when he was a Congress chief. But he and other MLAs joined the People’s Party of Arunachal quickly later on, and then the BJP inside one calendar year to kind a new federal government.
“The people of Arunachal Pradesh always needed a authorities that was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s,” Khandu stated when signing up for the BJP. Since Khandu’s swap in 2016, it has been a downhill slide for the Congress in the state. In 2019, Khandu was sworn in for a 2nd time after the BJP won 41 out of 60 seats in the point out polls. When the ruling get together, the Congress was minimized to 4 seats and came driving the Janata Dal (United).Gurkanwal Kaur, daughter of Beant Singh
Gurkanwal Kaur, daughter of Beant Singh (and aunt of Ravneet Singh Bittu), is special in this listing since she has returned to the Congress fold.In 2017, Kaur, while joining the BJP in the existence of Union minister Arun Jaitley, said, “My father laid down his everyday living for the prosperity of Punjab we sacrificed our lives for the Congress but now, that social gathering neither problems about the nation nor does it care for us.”
But three days later on, she was back again in the Congress. Amarinder Singh, who was with the Congress then, welcomed her return, and Kaur mentioned she was delighted to be again in her “political family”. Kaur served as an MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment from 2002 to 2007 and a minister in the Amarinder Singh-led authorities. As a sitting MLA, she dropped the 2007 polls by 17,000 votes.Beant Singh served as main minister of Punjab from 1992 to 1995 prior to getting assassinated in a bomb blast at the secretariat elaborate in Chandigarh.Vijay Bahuguna, son of H.N. Bahuguna
Vijay Bahuguna, an additional second-era main minister, was among the nine Congress rebels who joined the BJP in 2016 when Harish Rawat was at the helm of state affairs.
He is the son of Congress chief H.N. Bahuguna, who served as the Uttar Pradesh main minister from 1973-75.Vijay Bahuguna was the Uttarakhand chief minister throughout the 2013 Kedarnath flash floods, with the Congress inquiring him to resign more than the managing of the disaster that remaining hundreds of men and women lifeless.Rita Bahuguna Joshi, daughter of H.N. Bahuguna
Months just after her brother joined the BJP, Rita Bahuguna Joshi adopted. Joshi, a previous Congress main in Uttar Pradesh, was deemed close to Rahul Gandhi.On the other hand, though resigning from Congress, she claimed, “Not just the UP Congress, but the complete nation is sad with the management of Rahul Gandhi.”
Joshi served in the very first Yogi Adityanath-led UP government as a minister. Then she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Prayagraj in 2019.(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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