New Delhi: The Congress received a jolt in Gujarat ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as senior party MLA and prominent Koli community leader Kunvarji Bavaliya on Tuesday resigned as party legislator and joined the Vijay Rupani-led BJP government as a Cabinet minister. The five-time MLA from Jasdan had been critical of Congress president Rahul Gandhi for “playing casteist politics in the party”.

In the fast-paced development over a few hours, Mr Bavaliya resigned from the Congress and as an MLA from the Assembly, drove to the BJP office where he was inducted into the party, and took oath as a minister at the Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar.

Mr Bavaliya had met Mr Gandhi less than a fortnight back to express his unhappiness over the state of affairs in the Gujarat unit under the young leadership, including president Amit Chavda and Leader of the Opposition Paresh Dhanani.

“The way Rahulji is playing casteist politics, I realised I will not be able to succeed in working in the Congress any more,” Mr Bavaliya told reporters.

“I was not getting a chance to work the way I wanted to in the Congress due to constant infighting. This (BJP) government is moving ahead with a mission, and I will be able to succeed in fulfilling the expectations of people, rural populace, the poor and farmers,” he said.

State Congress chief Chavda called Mr Bavaliya’s decision “opportunistic”. “He will have to answer Congress voters who elected him repeatedly for so many years,” Mr Chavda said.

After the Congress lost in the Assembly elections last December, Mr Bavaliya, who represented Rajkot in the Lok Sabha during 2009-2014, was expecting to be appointed as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. Instead, the Congress high command chose Mr Dhanani who is almost 20 years junior to him.

Mr Bavaliya is considered one of the three tallest leaders of that Koli community that forms the single largest electoral group in the state, especially, in the Saurashtra region. The other two leaders are BJP MLA Parsottam Solanki from Bhavnagar (rural) and Congress legislator Somabhai Patel from Limdi Assembly seat.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress won 30 out of 54 seats in Saurashtra, 14 more than in 2012. The BJP’s tally fell from 35 in 2012 to 23.

The BJP fared badly in Saurashtra as the Patidar community deserted it following the quota agitation led by Hardik Patel. The Koli community is present in large numbers in at least 20 Assembly constituencies in Saurashtra, which sends four MPs to the Lok Sabha.