After Jitin Prasada joined the BJP on Wednesday, senior Congress leader  Mallikarjun Kharge called it “unfortunate” saying “he also had a future here”.

Talking to the reporters, Kharge said, “Jaane wale jaate rehte hain, we can’t stop them. It was his decision, he also had a future here (Congress Party). However, it is unfortunate.”

Prasada joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Piyush Goyal and its chief spokesperson Anil Baluni.

Talking to the media after joining the saffron party, Prasada had said, “if there was any political party in the country today that worked in an institutional way… if there was truly any national party in the country, then it was the Bharatiya Janata Party”.

‘Congress should have been the hunter, the poacher’

Reacting over this, Congress leader Sanjay Jha said, “With anti-incumbency building up against the government, in a normal world, the Congress should have been the hunter, the poacher. Clearly, there is a problem.”

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took a dig at the grand old party asking why Congress leaders are joining the BJP if Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “intolerant”.

“They say Modi ji is intolerant. Then why so many senior Congress leaders are abandoning the “tolerant” Gandhi family and wanting to work with Modiji? People prefer to work in a democratic culture rather than work for a delusional dictator disconnected from the masses,” he said in a tweet.

‘Congress must reclaim its position as India’s big tent party’

Former chief of the Mumbai Congress, Milind Deora said the Congress must reclaim its position as India’s big tent party and asserted that it still has a strong bench which, if empowered and optimally utilised, can deliver.

“I believe in @INCIndia as a party that can & must reclaim its position as India’s big tent party. We still have a strong bench that if empowered & optimally utilised, can deliver. I only wish that several of my friends, peers & valued colleagues hadn’t left us,” he said.