Ashok Chavan has also joined the list of many former Chief Ministers of Congress joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
If we look at the leaders included in the list, they have not got the benefit of changing their ideology.
Let us tell you that the former Chief Ministers of Congress who have joined BJP include leaders like Amarinder Singh, Digambar Kamat, SM Krishna, Vijay Bahuguna, N Kiran Reddy, ND Tiwari, Jagdambika Pal and Pema Khandu.
BJP has benefited in Arunachal Pradesh with the arrival of Pema Khandu. The saffron party got majority in this state and Khandu continues to be the Chief Minister.
It is said about ND Tiwari that he had joined BJP keeping in mind the future of his son. He died soon after. Due to the complexities of Karnataka politics and his advancing age, SM Krishna also became politically inactive.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who left Congress and joined BJP, also seems less active now. It is believed that he wants to hand over his political legacy to his daughter.
Therefore he changed his ideology. Vijay Bahuguna has proved lucky in this matter. When BJP returned to power in Uttarakhand, his son also got a place in the Dhami cabinet.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Manipur CM Biren Singh and Tripura CM Manik Saha have a different story. It is said that Congress had promised to make Sarma the CM.
However, when the opportunity came, she went back on her promise. Congress continued Tarun Gogoi as CM. After this Sarma rebelled and opened the door to power for BJP in Assam. After Sarbananda Sonowal, BJP handed over the command of Assam to Himanta Sarma. Today, he has become a firebrand leader of BJP.
Biren Singh also distanced himself from Congress and helped in the expansion of BJP in the state. In 2017, the saffron party got majority in Manipur. He was made CM.
When violence broke out in Manipur, there was a demand to remove the CM, but BJP kept faith in Biren Singh. Manik Saha had to wait to become CM. There was a Left government in Tripura for a long time. When BJP came to power, Biplab Kumar Deb was made the CM. Later Manik Saha became CM.
Apart from former Chief Ministers, senior leaders of Congress and other parties joined BJP. These include Rahul Gandhi’s former aide and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, RPN Singh and Jitin Prasad.
Scindia, who was successful in bringing down the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, was made the Union Minister. At the same time, Jatin Prasad is a minister in the UP government. RPN has recently been made a candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh.
In such a situation, it can be said that out of the long list of Congress leaders joining BJP, Himanta Sarma and Jyotiraditya Scindia have benefited the most. Scindia also succeeded in getting tickets for many supporters in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections in 2023.
Apart from this, Himanta Sarma is proving to be a firebrand campaigner of BJP as well as a trouble-shooter for the saffron party in the South as well as North-Eastern states.