In a jolt to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, its state spokesperson and a trusted aide of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath, Syed Jafar on Monday quit the party and joined the BJP.

Syed Jafar arrived at the BJP headquarters here, where he was welcomed by state president V.D. Sharma. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, party’s co-in-charge for Madhya Pradesh, Satish Upadhyay and senior leader Narottam Mishra, who is chairman of the party’s joining committee, were also present on the occasion.

Jafar, who had often been vocal against the BJP’s governance at the Centre and state, gave an indication for his possible shift around two weeks ago after supporting the implementation of CAA.

Notably, during the Assembly election held in November last year, Jafar used to be present in the meetings chaired by Kamal Nath either at his residence or at the Congress headquarters in Bhopal, and in Chhindwara. The Congress witnessed a stunning defeat, and was reduced to 66 against its tally of 114 in 2018. The BJP won 163 out of the 230 Assembly seats.

Considered to be a member of the close circle of Kamal Nath, Jafar is the second leader to switch to the BJP in the past year. Before Jafar, Narendra Saluja, who was the media cell head in MP Congress, joined the BJP ahead of the Assembly election last year.

This comes at a time when Kamal Nath is trying to keep the party cadre united, especially in Chhindwara to ensure the repeated victory for his son Nakul Nath, who is contesting his second Lok Sabha election from the family-bastion.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 28 of the 29 seats in MP. Nakul Nath, who was elected from Chhindwara, was the lone winner from the Congress in the state.