Bimal Shah, former Transport Minister in the BJP-run Keshubhai Patel Government who has been side-lined for almost one decade, may join the Opposition Congress party after the Diwali.

Sources in the Congress party said that Shah has put some condition in order to join the Opposition party that includes ticket for the Lok Sabha seat in Central Gujarat. Even in the ruling BJP many believe that the ex-MLA from Kapadvanj assembly constituency would join the Congress.

He was elected to the State assembly from Kapadvanj seat in Kheda district in 1998 and 2002, and had served as Minister of State for Transport in 1998. Although in 2007 assembly polls, BJP won with thumping majority, but Shah lost measurably and since then his role in the ruling party reduced gradually.

In order to keep his sinking political career afloat, the 57-year-old political leader contested from Kapadvanj as an independent candidate after the saffron party ignored him. He however couldn’t make his mark as an independent candidate as he could secure mearly 47,000 votes and stood third.

Sources in BJP said that because of Shah, BJP lost Kapadvanj seat as division of votes helped the Congress candidate Kalabhai Dabhi to win the seat by defeating BJP candidate Kanubhai Dabhi with margin of 27,000 votes. 

Despite Shah’s denial to join the Opposition party in near future, a senior leader in Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) said that very shortly Shah would meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Meanwhile Shah is maintaining that he would let media know if any such development would take place. In case Shah would join Congress, he may contest from Kheda Lok Sabha Constituency as the opposition party didn’t have powerful leader in the constituency to take on the saffron brigade.

With Lok Sabha polls coming closer, political migration from one party to another would start not only in Gujarat but across the country. Being a home-state of the Prime Minister, Congress party is trying hard to make major dent in PM Modi’s bastion as in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls BJP won all 26 seats.