Laying to rest all speculations regarding his future course of action, former Congress leader from Gujarat Rohan Gupta has joined the BJP less than a month after ending his 12-year-old association with the grand old party.
Gupta, along with some other leaders, joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and its national general secretary Vinod Tawde.
Recently, another former Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh also joined the BJP.
Also Read: Rohan Gupta Resigns from Congress
In June 2022, Rohan had been removed as head of the Congress’s social media team two years ago after his family’s association with a firm promoted by a confidant of Union Home Minister Amit Shah became public.
The controversy involved the revelation that his wife Yogita and brother Arpan were partners in Sunbirds Infrabuild, a firm whose promoter was Amit Shah’s confidant Ajay Patel, chairman of the Gujarat State Cooperative Bank and Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank.
Gupta resigned from the party on March 18, 2024, citing constant humiliation and character assassination by a senior leader, three days after he withdrew his candidature for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Gupta’s name was announced as a candidate on March 12. Within six days, he sent a letter of non-candidacy to state president Shakitsinh Gohil. In the letter, Gupta revealed that his father, Rajkumar Gupta, had been admitted to the hospital due to deteriorating health.
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Congress leaders and supporters, however, said Gupta was a big liability and was never ideologically inclined. He was a part-time politician and a full-time businessman and his priority was always that, as it is called in Gujarat, “doing settings” and getting business deals from whoever it was. Congress was never his priority and he is now crying wolf and playing victim when he actually withdrew from Loksabha polls as a candidate from Ahmedabad just because his business deals and settings would have been disturbed if he contested, they said.
Son of veteran Gujarat Congress leader Rajkumar Gupta, Rohan completed his bachelor’s degree from a private college in Pune. He joined the Congress in 2012 and held various posts since then. His father had also held important positions in the Gujarat Congress over the years. Rohan was among the 40 candidates selected by the Congress for the 2024 polls.
Gujarat will vote on May 7, in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections. The counting of votes is slated on June 4. The BJP has won all 26 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
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