Alpesh Thakor, former Congress leader who took mushroom jibe at Modi, joins BJP

Former Gujarat Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor, who had claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi eats “imported mushrooms from Taiwan” worth Rs 80,000 for fairer complexion, on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Ahmedabad. Along with Thakor, his close aid Dhavalsinh Zala also switched his loyalty to the saffron party.

Both leaders, Thakor and Zala, joined the BJP in the presence of party's Gujarat chief president Jitu Vaghani after Thakor Sena, an outfit founded by Alpesh Thakor, gave its nod.

Earlier this month, Thakor and Zala had resigned as Congress MLAs after apparently cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat held on 5 July. Aplesh Thakor had emerged as a prominent OBC leader after the Hardik Patel-led agitation for Patel reservation in 2015.

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Ahead of the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections, Thakor, who used to be a staunch critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had joined the Congress party. He also won the Assembly elections on a Congress ticket from the Radhanpur constituency in Patan district. Zala, who is said to be a close aid of Thakor, was elected from Bayad in Sabarkantha district in the 2017 Assembly polls.

During the campaigning for Assembly elections in Gujarat, Thakor had triggered a row after claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi eats imported mushrooms from Taiwan” worth Rs 80,000 each to make his complexion fairer.