Why are Ahmed Patel loyalists leaving Congress? 

New Delhi: Senior Congress leaders from Gujarat Raju Parmar and Naresh Raval are set to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on August 17, dealing a major blow to the grand old party ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the state.

Parmar, 72, has been a three-term Rajya Sabha member from 1988 to 2006, while Raval, 63, was a Minister of State for Home in the Congress government led by chief minister Chimanbhai Patel. He was also the leader of the opposition in 2002 when the Gujarat riots happened.

Parmar was a prominent Dalit face of the Congress while Raval, a three-time legislator, is a Brahmin. They met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to firm up their joining plan.

The two were associated with the Congress for over four decades and had stayed put even during the party's worst period in the state. The Congress has been out of power in the home state of Prime Minister Modi and union home minister Amit Shah for the past 27 years now and none of them left it during this period, a clear indication that all is not well in the grand old party.

Both were considered close to Congress' master strategist, troubleshooter and party chief Sonia Gandhi's political advisor Ahmed Patel, who died of post-Covid complications in November 2020.

After Patel's death, his loyalists were increasingly sidelined in the party. Many of them have claimed that they are not being consulted by the state leadership. Even Patidar leader Hardik Patel had blamed the Gujarat Congress leadership for his exit. He later joined the BJP.

It is well-known in Congress circles that former party chief Rahul Gandhi and Patel shared an uneasy relationship and there was a huge trust deficit between the two.

Several Congress leaders from across the country had complained to Rahul Gandhi that the widening gap between the party high command and the workers was due to Patel who wanted to maintain his tight control over the organisation.

For his part, Rahul Gandhi was keen to keep the old guard away from the decision-making process and eventually relegate them to the sidelines.

But there were occasions when Patel showed him his worth by coming to the party's rescue in crisis situations. Just before Patel's death, the trust deficit between the two had reduced significantly and the working relationship also had restored.

That said, the exit of senior leaders ahead of the assembly elections does not augur well for the Congress, especially at a time when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying to occupy its political space in Gujarat and emerging as the main challenger to the ruling BJP.

In fact, it is bad news for the grand old party, which is already struggling to stem its electoral slide since 2014 and whose space in the country's political landscape has drastically shrunk over the years.