Chatursinh Javanji Chavda, popularly known as C J Chavda, tendered his resignation as an MLA of Gujarat Assembly to Speaker Shankar Chaudhary on Friday. The development comes as a big jolt to the Congress in Gujarat, which is already facing a raft of defections.

Chavda, a senior party leader and the Congress’s Kshatriya face in northern Gujarat, was the sitting MLA from the Vijapur constituency having been elected in the 2022 Assembly polls. The 65-year-old is also considered a loyalist of former Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela.

Following his resignation, the Congress’s strength in the Assembly is down to 15 MLAs.

Chavda is expected to join the BJP in February. It is believed that Gujarat BJP spokesperson Jayrajsinh Jadeja, who is considered close to Chavda, played a key role in Chavda’s resignation. Jadeja is also the member of a panel formed by the Gujarat BJP to induct members of other parties into the BJP.

Speaking to the media after tendering his resignation, Chavda said, “When the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha Mahotsav is on or when the surgical strike was done, statements from the Congress, whoever their advisers are, damage the country. I do not like that.”

“When Narendrabhai (Modi) has emerged as a world leader and Amitbhai (Shah) and team are assisting him, I do not want to be a hurdle and have resigned,” he added, while comparing the PM and Union home minister with Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel during the freedom struggle. Chavda said he has decided to “go with the flow instead of going against it”.

On joining the BJP, Chavda said he will consult his supporters and the people of Vijapur and will “act as per their command”.

Chavda is the second Congress MLA to resign since December. Last month, Khambhat MLA Chirag Patel quit the party and resigned as an MLA in the presence of BJP state vice-president Bharat Boghara. Patel, who was widely expected to rejoin the BJP, had said more resignations would follow as “many other MLAs felt suffocated in the Congress”

“Majority of (Congress) MLAs are unhappy with the functioning of the party and factionalism is at its height. New faces and youngsters are not being encouraged,” Patel had said.

Chavda, a veterinary surgeon from Anand Agriculture University and a law graduate from Gujarat University, was a state bureaucrat before he voluntarily retired to take the plunge into politics. As per his most recent election affidavit, Chavda is a builder and also involved in land dealings.

He was part of the Rashtriya Janata Party, floated by Vaghela in the late 1990s. When Vaghela merged the RJP with the Congress in 1999, Chavda too joined the Congress with him.

Chavda’s first foray into electoral politics was as a member of the Mehsana District Panchayat. In 2002, he was first elected to the Gujarat Assembly from the Gandhinagar constituency.

However, in 2007, he lost his re-election bid from the Gandhinagar constituency. In 2009, he lost the by-election for the Dehgam Assembly constituency. In the 2017 Assembly polls, the next election he contested, he won from the Gandhinagar North constituency and was subsequently appointed as the Chief Whip of the Congress in the Assembly.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress fielded him from the Gandhinagar seat against Amit Shah, and Chavda lost by more than five lakh votes.

In the 2022 Assembly elections, Chavda changed his constituency to the Mehsana district’s Vijapur and won. He was one of only 17 Congress winners in the 182-member House.

As per his affidavit filed before the Election Commission for the 2022 Assembly elections, Chavda faces a defamation suit registered against him by former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani for alleging Rupani’s involvement in a Rs 500-crore land zoning scam. Chavda had made the allegations when he was the Congress’s Chief Whip in the Assembly.

Chavda’s wife, Falguni, is the director of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Gujarat government. His son, Bharatsinh, is a section officer in the Gujarat government.