Team News Riveting
New Delhi, June 9
The on-going exercise of the Congress to cool down dissident leaders of Group 23 or G-23 received a big jolt as a powerful member and former Union Minister Jitin Prasada today crossed over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A popular Brahmin face in Uttar Pradesh, Jitin finally spilled out his long-running differences with the Congress leadership in open. The two-time parliamentarian was among the 23 leaders who triggered a controversy in the Congress, suggesting several organisational changes and calling for an “introspection” in a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020.
He would be the first leader from the group to jump the ship. In fact, rumours were on about many other switching over to the BJP but the Congress high command initiated the process to pacify the leaders. When it appeared that Congress had succeeded in keeping its house in order, Jitin Prasada today gave a big jolt.
He is the second prominent Brahmin face in Uttar Pradesh to desert the Congress and join the BJP after Rita Bahuguna Joshi who joined the saffron camp in 2016. The development comes at a time when political parties were gearing up for the assembly elections in the state due next year while opposition parties tried to corner Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on COVID crises.
Sources close to Jitin Prasada said the count-down had started after the 2019 general election when one time member of Team Rahul (because leaders in the group were close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi) defied UP In-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s call asking him to shift to Lucknow Lok Sabha seat. Jitin felt more comfortable contesting from his traditional seat Dhaurara and didn’t see any sound political rationale in shifting to Lucknow and challenging BJP stalwart Rajnath Singh.
