'Can't Raise Anti-Sanatan Slogans': Gourav Vallabh Switches from Congress to BJP

Gourav Vallabh joined the BJP on Thursday hours after he quit the Congress, saying he can neither raise anti-Sanatan slogans, nor abuse "wealth creators" day in and day out.

New Delhi: In an embarrassment to Congress, its leader Gourav Vallabh on Thursday resigned from the primary membership of the party, citing his 'inability' to raise anti-Sanatan slogans and "abuse the wealth creators of the country" and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).

Vallabh said he is not comfortable with the party's 'directionless way' of moving forward ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. In a post on X, the leader posted his two-page resignation letter, which he sent to party President Mallikarjun Kharge. He further said that he was quitting the party as he was not feeling "comfortable with the directionless way in which the Congress party is moving forward".

"I do not feel comfortable with the directionless way in which the Congress party is moving forward today. I can neither raise anti-Sanatana slogans nor abuse the wealth creators of the country. I am resigning from all posts and primary membership of the Congress party," Vallabh said.

Gourav Vallabh contested the Rajasthan assembly election from Udaipur constituency in 2023. However, the BJP candidate secured a comfortable win with a margin of over 32,000 votes. Vallabh made his poll debut in 2019 from Jharkhand's Jamshedpur East, where he bagged over 18,000 and ended up in third spot behind then-sitting chief minister Raghubar Das and Saryu Roy.

He further alleged that the Congress party is moving in the wrong direction, against the 'basic principle of the party'.

"These days the party is moving in the wrong direction. On one hand, we talk about the caste-based census and on the other hand, the party seems to oppose the entire Hindu society. This style of working gives a misleading message to the public that the party is a supporter of a particular religion only. This is against the basic principles of Congress," he said.

He also alleged that Congress's stand on economic matters 'has always been to humiliate and abuse the wealth creators of the country'. "Today we have turned against those economic liberalisation, privatization and globalization (LPG) policies for which the world has given us full credit for implementing in the country. Is it wrong to earn money by doing business in our country?" the leader said.

"Sir, when I joined the party, my only aim was to use my ability and capability in economic matters in the interest of the country. We may not be in power, but we could have presented the party's economic policy-making in the national interest in a better way in our manifesto and elsewhere. But, this effort was not made at the party level, which is no less than a suffocation for a person knowledgeable about economic matters like me," he added.