From suffering from COVID-19 in April to a humiliating defeat for the Congress in West Bengal, the AICC in-charge of West Bengal, Jitin Prasada had little to make it big into the headlines so far until speculations became rife that the former minister in the Manmohan Singh council of ministers is going to join the BJP on Wednesday.
Born on 29 November 1973, Prasada is an MBA and represented the Dhaurahra Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh in the 15th Lok Sabha, which is also his last electoral victory till now.
Why has Prasada left Congress?
Prasada’s anger against Congress is not new. He had serious differences with Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi as he refused to contest the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 from the Lucknow constituency.
In 2020, the former Union minister was among the 23 Congress leaders who authored a letter against the party top brass. The “dissent letter” to then interim party president Sonia Gandhi demanding massive changes in party, also cost Prasada the chance of becoming the president of the state unit of the party as Congress ranks in Uttar Pradesh flocked against him.
However, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had then in fact tweeted out in his defence. “Unfortunate that Jitin Prasada is being officially targeted in UP Congress needs to target the BJP with surgical strikes instead wasting its energy by targeting its own,” Sibal wrote.
According to a report in NDTV, the 23 Congress leaders who wrote to interim party president Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping reforms, collective decision-making and “full-time, visible leadership”, caused fresh convulsions in the party struggling to retain its political relevance.
“Jitin Prasada is the only person from Uttar Pradesh to have signed the letter. His family history has been against the Gandhi family and his father Jitendra Prasada proved it by fighting elections against Sonia Gandhi. Despite this, Sonia Gandhi gave Jitin Prasada a Lok Sabha ticket and made him a minister. What he has done is gross indiscipline and the district Congress committee wants strict action against him and condemns his actions,” the resolution that NDTV translated read.
What this means for Congress?
On the electoral front, Prasada does not have a stellar show when it comes to elections since 2014. He lost all three elections from his bastion since 2014 and even his deposit in the 2019 election. With, his joining the saffron party, the BJP will get another Brahmin face in Uttar Pradesh after Rita Bahaguna Joshi. Prasada is credited for starting the Chetna Samaj.
Prasada was first elected in 2004 to the 14th Lok Sabha where he became a Member, Committee on Petitions, Committee on Information Technology and Communications, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Civil Aviation.
From April 2008 to May 2009, he took charge as the Minister of State, Steel.
In May 2009, when he was re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha, he took charge as the Union Minister of State, Petroleum and Natural Gas and remained so till 18 January 2011. He was again appointed as the Union Minister of State, Road Transport and Highways from 19 January 2011 till 28 October 2012. His last ministerial engagement at the Centre was as the Union Minister of State, Human Resource Development.