Congress leader Jitin Prasada joins BJP at party headquarters in Delhi

New Delhi, June 09: Congress leader Jitin Prasada joined the BJP on Wednesday, in a shot in the arm for the saffron party as it prepares for assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year. He joined the BJP in presence of Union minister Piyush Goyal and its chief spoke

He joined the BJP in presence of Union minister Piyush Goyal and its chief spokesperson Anil Baluni.

Addressing media, Prasad said,''I felt that what is the relevance of staying in a party if you can't protect interests of your people or work for them. I felt I was unable to do that at Congress. I thank people in Congress who blessed me all these yrs but now I'll work as a dedicated BJP worker.''

''I have a three-generation connection with Congress, so I took this important decision after a lot of deliberation. In the last 8-10 years I have felt that if there is one party that is truly national, it is BJP. Other parties are regional but this is national party,'' he further said.

''If there is any political party or a leader standing for the interests of the nation today, given the situation that our country is going through, it is BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,'' he also said.

The 47-year-old Prasada, a former Union minister, comes from a well known Brahmin family of Uttar Pradesh and was serving as the Congress leader in-charge of West Bengal before joining the BJP.

His father Jitendra Prasada was a noted Congress leader.

With the Congress in dire straits in Uttar Pradesh and he himself losing the Lok Sabha polls twice in a row, Prasada''s decision to join the BJP may help him politically at a time when the saffron party is working overtime to boost its ranks in preparation for the assembly polls.

It will also help the BJP keep Brahmins, a section of whom are said to be unhappy with the party in Uttar Pradesh, in good humour in the politically important state of India, party sources said.

Speculation was rife even during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections of Prasada joining the BJP, but it is believed that the Congress leadership had then managed to persuade him against quitting the party.