Veteran Congress leader Kunvarji Bavaliya quits party, joins BJP

Gandhinagar, July 3: Veteran Gujarat Congress MLA and prominent Koli community leader Kunvarji Bavaliya quit Congress today morning and joined BJP soon after that.

A four-time MLA from Jasdan and former Lok Sabha member from Rajkot in 2009, Bavaliya handed over his resignation to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi.

"This has been playing on my mind for some time since I was unable to carry out public welfare works without interruption because of internal politicking in the party.

"On the other hand, I had been watching how Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national level and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani at the state level has been working for public good," he told reporters after joining the BJP.

The Koli community is a big vote bank in Saurashtra, where BJP's performance was poor in the recently held state assembly election. With Bavaliya joining in, BJP is trying to revive in Saurashtra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.