MUMBAI: Former Leader of Opposition in the BMC, Ravi Raja resigned from the Congress party and officially joined the BJP on Thursday, in the presence of Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar.
Raja stated that his 44 years of service to the party went unrecognized and despite his request for a ticket in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, the party selected a candidate for Sion Koliwada with no prior experience as an elected representative. “I have been a five-term corporator and deserved the ticket this election,” said Raja.
He informed TOI that he will be joining the BJP today at noon.
Raja was first elected as a corporator in 1992 and was subsequently re-elected continuously, except for the period from 2012 to 2017, when the ward was reserved for a woman candidate. As a first-generation politician, he mentioned that he worked for the party all these years with no expectations in return; however, in this assembly election, he felt that he deserved to contest.
The Congress had nominated Ganesh Kumar Yadav as the candidate from Sion Koliwada for this election. Yadav was also the party’s nominee in the last election but was defeated by BJP’s Tamil Selvan by 13,951 votes.