Jitin Prasada Moves From The Congress To The BJP Ahead Of The UP Election
New Delhi: Former Union Minister Jitin Prasada, who was once a close companion of Rahul Gandhi, has joined the BJP, dealing a major blow to the Congress ahead of the Uttar Pradesh election next year.
The 47-year-old leader, who was the Congress’s top Brahmin face in UP, is stepping down at a time when the party is meeting in Delhi and try to resolve a feud in Punjab, which will vote in 2022.
“I started feeling that I was in a party surrounded by politics. I started feeling that I was not able to contribute and work for the people. I wasn’t able to work for the benefit of the people,” Jitin Prasada said after accepting the BJP’s saffron scarf.
“BJP is the only real political party. It’s the only national party. The rest of the parties are regional. BJP and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi only ones that can meet the challenges the country is facing now.”
Following Jyotiraditya Scindia’s defection to the BJP last year, Mr Prasada is the second high-profile former Rahul Gandhi aide to defect to the BJP. There was talk soon after his departure that another influential “rebel,” Rajasthan leader Sachin Pilot, could be on his way out as well.
In 2019, when there were rumours of Mr Prasada joining the BJP, he denied them emphatically. But sources say at the time Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had convinced him to stay.
“What’s the point in being a party if you can’t help the people you represent,” Mr Prasada said today.
He had criticised the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh just five months before for allegedly manhandling his friend and fellow Doon School alum Rahul Gandhi during a march over the Hathras rape case.
His dissatisfaction with his 20-year party was well-known; he was a member of the “G-23,” a group of 23 Congress leaders who wrote to party leader Sonia Gandhi last year, demanding sweeping changes, collective decision-making, and “full-time, noticeable leadership.”
Mr Prasada was one of the few “dissenters” to be given any position after that cataclysmic letter; he was in charge of the Congress’ Bengal election campaign, which was a disaster.
Former Lok Sabha MP from Dhaurahra in Uttar Pradesh, he was one of the Congress’s top leaders in India’s most politically important state, and his death is a major setback for the party ahead of the elections in less than a year.
Jitin Prasada is a significant acquisition for the BJP at a time when its government in Uttar Pradesh, headed by Yogi Adityanath, is facing criticism over its handling of Covid.
Mr Prasada’s entry is intended to help the BJP change the perception of Yogi Adityanath’s administration, which is seen by some Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh as pro-Thakur (the Chief Minister’s caste).
Brahmins account for roughly 13% of UP voters and are a powerful group that has slowly shifted from Congress to the BJP over the years.
Mr Prasada founded a “Brahmin Chetna Parishad” in July of last year to give the Brahmin community a voice, but it has had little effect.
However, some members of Congress doubt his importance. He has now lost three elections in a row: the 2014 and 2019 national elections, as well as the 2017 UP assembly elections.
Some members of the UP Congress have recently turned against him. Following the letter bomb, a state-level Congress unit called for action against the G-23, citing Mr Prasada and his family’s tumultuous relationship with the Gandhis.
Jitendra Prasada, his father and a Congress veteran, had questioned Sonia Gandhi’s leadership of the party in 1999, running against her for the position of party president. In 2002, he passed away.
Jitin Prasada went on to serve twice as a minister in Manmohan Singh’s Congress administration and was once considered one of Rahul Gandhi’s closest confidants.
The autocracy and desperation of the BJP govt in UP was on full display today. By manhandling @RahulGandhi and preventing @priyankagandhi from reaching out to Hathras victims family they have revealed their inherent disregard for every Indian’s democratic right and basic freedom. pic.twitter.com/Y014wCQb6W
— Jitin Prasada जितिन प्रसाद (@JitinPrasada) October 1, 2020
