In yet another major dent to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, its Gujarat Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister Naran Rathwa joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with his son and a large number of supporters on Tuesday.

The tribal leader from Chhota Udepur in Gujarat, Rathwa’s tenure as the Rajya Sabha member will end in April this year. He was elected to the Lok Sabha five times – first in 1989, then in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 2004.

Rathwa was a Minister of State for Railways in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2004, and lost to BJP candidate Ramsinh Rathwa in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

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Rathwa’s son Sangramsinh had unsuccessfully contested the 2022 Gujarat assembly elections as a Congress candidate from Scheduled Tribe (ST)-reserved Chhota Udepur seat. He joined the BJP along with his father at a function.

Gujarat BJP chief C R Paatil inducted Rathwa and others into the party by offering them saffron scarves and caps at the party’s state headquarters ‘Kamalam’ in Gandhinagar.

“The main issue with the Congress is that it has been unable to rebuild the party after facing defeat. It is because there is no decision-making and effort… Rahul Gandhi is on a Nyay Yatra across the country but there is no Nyay (justice) within the party. The educated youth of the party are not being given any responsibility… The Congress had a strong youth base but there is no motivational support from the party,” Sangramsinh told The Indian Express.

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Adding that the decision to quit the Congress was taken with a “heavy heart”, Sangramsinh added, “It is not easy to take a decision to quit the party that one has been associated with for so many years but there is no other way…”

Sangramsinh Rathwa, who began as a youth leader of the Congress, has been the president of the Chhota Udepur Municipality as well as the vice-president of the Gujarat Youth Congress. He was also the former general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress.