Five former Congress MLAs join BJP in Gujarat

Five former Congress MLAs from Gujarat, out of the total eight who had resigned as legislators in March and June- ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections- joined the BJP on Saturday.

Former Congress MLAs Jitu Chaudhary, Pradyumnasinh Jadeja, JV Kakadiya, Akshay Patel and Brijesh Merja joined the BJP in the presence of party's state unit president Jitu Vaghani and other senior leaders.

Of these five former MLAs, Patel, Merja and Chaudhary had resigned as legislators earlier this month, soon after the Election Commission announced June 19 as the new date for the Rajya Sabha election in the state. Kakadiya and Jadeja had resigned as MLAs in March.