Former councillor shifts loyalty

VADODARA: Former Congress councillor and son of former Vadodara mayor late Jayanti Ravji Patel, Paresh Patel joined the BJP on Tuesday. Patel was peeved with the party since ticket distribution after Jayesh Thakkar was awarded the party ticket for the Raopura constituency.
Patel joined the party in the presence of BJP national secretary Shyam Zazu late on Tuesday afternoon.His supporters who had resigned from the Congress along with Patel on Monday also joined the BJP.
Patel said that he had to part ways with the party he had grown up with as grassroot workers were not having any say there. "My father served the party for his lifetime and even I had never imagined that I would ever leave it. But it now transpires that the Congress does not care for its committed workers. Their voices are ignored and outsiders who had nothing to do with the party are given ticket," Patel said while referring to the selection of Jayesh Thakkar as the Congress candidate from Raopura.
Patel also rued the fact that when his father died, the party did not even hold a formal condolence meeting for him. "I was very disappointed and this issue had been brewing inside me for years now," he said.
Sources said BJP leader Harshit nee Gopi Talati had worked on Patel over the last few days and ensured that he changes sides. BJP city unit president Bharat Dangar said that the day was a black day for the Congress in the city. "A man from a family that served the party for two generations had to leave it," he said.