New Delhi: Congress leader Jitin Prasada on Wednesday joined the BJP at 1 pm in the presence of Union Minister Piyush Goyal, at the party headquarters in Delhi. "I have a three-generation connection with Congress, so I took this important decision after a lot of deliberation. In the last 8-10 years I have felt that if there is one party that is truly national, it is BJP. Other parties are regional but this is a national party," Jitin Prasada said having joined the saffron party.
"If there is any political party or a leader standing for the interests of the nation today, given the situation that our country is going through, it is BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I felt that what is the relevance of staying in a party if you can't protect interests of your people or work for them. I felt I was unable to do that at Congress. I thank people in Congress who blessed me all these yrs but now I'll work as a dedicated BJP worker," Jitin Prasada added.
Jitin Prasada began his career with Indian Youth Congress as a general secretary. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 for the first time. He was also a minister in the UPA government at the Centre. Prasada's departure comes as a big blow to the Congress after another heavyweight leader of the party Jyotiraditya Scindia had joined the BJP in March 2020.
As a prominent Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh, the exit of Prasada is likely to affect the Congress' plans of revival in Uttar Pradesh which sends the largest number of MPs to the Parliament. Congress has been trying to revive the grassroots base of the party in Uttar Pradesh by projecting Priyanka Gandhi.
Prasada was not given a ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He has earlier served as the Minister of State, Road Transport and Highways, Human Resources and Minister of State, Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Prasada has been the Brahmin face of the Congress in UP, and his family have been at the forefront of building the party in Uttar Pradesh. It is being speculated that a prominent role will be given by the BJP for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for Prasada. He had launched the Brahmin Chetna Parishad in a bid to fight for the rights of the community, which he described as a symbolic representation of the community in the state government and in the bureaucracy. He had initiated such programmes to woo Brahmins into the Congress fold.
Speaking to ETV Bharat in Aug of 2020, Jitin Prasada had said, "See, I am not aiming to be projected as a brahmin leader in UP. However, it is correct that any move by a politician is seen as having a political motive. This is non-political and is not for votes."
However, the current exit of Jitin Prasada would dent the prospects of the Congress getting back its traditional votaries in Uttar Pradesh before the assembly elections in the state.
Jitin Prasada was at the forefront of Congress' campaign to make the UP govt accountable in the Shahjahanpur rape case, he was put under preventive custody after the district administration denied permission to hold a padayatra in support of the Shahjahanpur rape victim in 2019.
Recently, Jitin Prasada had been appointed as the General Secretary of All India Congress Committee for the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.
