In a significant setback for the Congress in Maharashtra, senior party leader Padmakar Valvi joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, with state BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule and party leader Ashok Chavan present in Mumbai.
Valvi’s move to the BJP coincided with Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra arriving in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar on Tuesday.
Valvi, a prominent figure of the Congress Party in Nandurbar, a tribal-dominated district, has served as a three-time MLA representing the region.
Padmakar Valvi, a prominent Congress leader from North Maharashtra, has previously held ministerial positions in the Congress-NCP government.
The Maharashtra Congress has witnessed a series of departures lately, with the latest being a few weeks ago when Basavaraj Patil switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party, alongside Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil.
On February 21, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis honored and extended congratulations to the newly elected Rajya Sabha members from the BJP, which included former Congress member Ashok Chavan.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai on February 13.
In neighboring Madhya Pradesh, former MLA Arunoday Choubey and Shivdayal Bagri joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav in the state capital Bhopal.
Previously, Manish Khanduri, the son of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and veteran BJP leader Retd Major General Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, switched to the BJP after resigning from Congress, in the presence of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami at the BJP Mahanagar office.
Additionally, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Suresh Pachouri also joined the BJP in Bhopal.