New Delhi:

They had been Congress’s defenders in televised debates on pressing issues. They will target the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and ask tough questions. They are now clarifying the government’s position and lashing out at Congress and its leadership.

Gourav Vallabh today joined the list of Congress spokespersons who have switched to the BJP over the past few years. Vallabh is a familiar face on social media, with his pointed attacks on BJP leaders often going viral. This morning he resigned from the Congress party, only to be welcomed by the Bharatiya Janata Party within hours.

Shortly after, he addressed the media and expressed his dissatisfaction with the party’s lack of direction. “I can neither raise anti-Sanathan slogans nor abuse wealth creators day in and day out. Therefore, I resign from all offices and principal membership of the party,” he told Congress president Malli Kajong Hager said in his resignation letter.

During his tenure in the Congress, Mr. Vallabh contested unsuccessfully in the assembly elections in Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

not the first

Before Mr Vallabh, prominent Congress figures across the political aisle included Jaiveer Shergill, Shehzad Poonawalla and Rita Bahuguna Joshi ). Mr Shergill, who joined the BJP in 2022 after spending a decade in the Congress party, elaborated on his position as a member of the media panel. Mr Poonawalla, another prominent figure from the grand old party, made headlines in 2017 when he called the Congress party’s organizational polls a “scam”. He later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and was appointed its spokesperson. In 2021, he was also appointed as the head of the social media unit of the BJP in the capital.

Ms. Joshi, a former Congress spokesperson, has also served as a Congress minister and Congress president in Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress nominated Sheila Dikshit as the chief ministerial representative for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh polls. Soon after, Ms. Joshi switched to the BJP in 2016.

Another big exit was Priyanka Chaturvedi, who switched to the Shiv Sena in 2019 – this was under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray before the party quit the NDA and joined hands with the Congress. After the Sena split, Ms Chaturvedi now sides with her former party on either side of the political divide.

What’s behind Exodus

Most speakers who quit Congress claimed the leadership was unapproachable and blamed “dynasties” in their parting shots. Shergill said he tried to meet the Gandhi family for a year but was “forced to bow down to people because of their closeness to the top leadership”. Mr Poonawalla said he was “forced to leave for speaking out against the dynasty”. Earlier, he had challenged Rahul Gandhi to a televised debate on their vision for the Congress. “We can be judged by merit, not by last name,” he said.

Ms. Joshi has said that while Sonia Gandhi listened to senior leaders and asked them to give it a go, that did not happen under Rahul Gandhi.

Ms Chaturvedi resigned after the party reinstated some leaders she accused of misconduct. She also said she hoped the party would give her a “chance to go to another level, but that didn’t happen.”

Narrative shock

Mr Vallabh’s exit on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections is a heavy blow to the Congress party’s PR campaign. Especially when one of the party’s most prominent figures, Supriya Shrinate, comes under fire for her offensive posts on social media against BJP candidate and actor Kangana Ranaut amid criticism. Although Ms. Shrinate clarified that the post was made without her knowledge, the damage had been done.

Another senior leader, Pawan Khera, was at the center of controversy earlier this year after the BJP accused him of insulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala has also been criticized for his remarks against BJP MP and actor Hema Malini.