Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP in Gujarat suffered a jolt on Monday when its former minister Bimal Shah and former MLA from Bardoli, Anil Patel, along with their supporters, joined the Congress.

The BJP leaders joined the Congress at a programme held at the Congress headquarters in Ahmedabad in the presence of party leader Ahmed Patel and state party president Amit Chavda.

Shah said that an attempt is being made in the BJP to corner competent persons. “When I joined the BJP, it was a party with a mission and now it has become power party,” he remarked.

Claiming that he had joined the Congress as a man of organisation, Shah said that he would make efforts to ensure Congress's victory in maximum of 26 Lok Sabha seats.

In 2017, the Congress had put up an impressive show restricting the BJP's tally to 99 in 182-member assembly. The BJP tally reached 100 after minister Kunwarji Bavalia won in Jasdan in a by-election.

Shah wondered as to why a large number of party workers in the BJP were silent. “Party workers are silent. But I decided that I had to make a beginning,” he said.

Ahmed Patel assured the newcomers that they would be treated like the old Congressmen. He alleged that there was a “financial emergency” in the country.