Indore (Madhya Pradesh): In yet another setback to Congress, PCC former vice president and educationalist Swapnil Kothari quit the grand old party and joined BJP on Friday.
He took membership of the saffron party in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and BJP state president VD Sharma.
Kothari, who had direct approach to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi and was a loyalist to former chief minister Kamal Nath, had given indication of crossing over to BJP about three to four days ago when he had stopped taking calls from Congress leaders.
Kothari comes from the Jain community. His departure to BJP is considered a jolt to Congress prospects in Indore as the grand old party has given ticket to Akshay Kanti Bam of Jain community and Kothari also comes from the same community.
So, BJP wholeheartedly welcomed Kothari to stop the votes of Jain community from shifting towards the Congress candidate in Indore. Kothari was sulking since he was denied ticket from Indore-5 constituency in assembly elections held in December last year. The grand old party had preferred Satyanarayan Patel to Kothari. Kothari had not rebelled but distanced himself completely from the activities of Congress. It is to be noted that recently, two former Congress MLAs viz Sanjay Shukla and Vishal Patel had quit the party and joined BJP.
