New Delhi/UNI: BJP’s whip in Jharkhand Assembly and MLA from Mandu Constituency, Jai Prakash Bhai Patel, on Wednesday joined the Congress along with his supporters here.

He joined the party in presence of Congress leader Pawan Kheda and party's Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Congress leader in Jharkhand Assembly Alamgir Alam and state president Rajesh Bhai Thakur at the AICC headquarter here.

Talking to reporters after joining the party, Patel said his father Tek Lal Mahato had dreamed of a developed Jharkhand but the BJP’s ideology was completely different from what his father had worked for.

"I had joined the BJP so that my father’s struggle and dream of making Jharkhand a beautiful and developed state would become a reality but this did not happen.

"I joined the Congress to fulfill my father’s dream of a better future for Jharkhand and strengthen the INDIA alliance in the state," Patel said.

While praising the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Patel said he was confident that the INDIA alliance will win all the seats in Jharkhand in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and form the government at the centre.

Meanwhile, welcoming Patel into the party fold Pawan Khera said, “Several senior BJP leaders have joined the party in the past and today BJP MLA and Whip Jai Prakash Bhai Patel of Mandu Assembly Constituency of Jharkhand is joining Congress”.

He further added that in the coming days several such press conferences would be held.