Who is Jitin Prasada, the Congress leader who joined the BJP

Former Union minister and Congress Working committee member Jitin Prasada joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday. The 47-year-old is the second high-profile leader after Jyotiraditya Scindia to leave the Congress and join BJP in past one year. 

“I felt that what is the relevance of staying in a party if you can’t protect interests of your people or work for them. I felt I was unable to do that in the Congress. I thank people in the Congress who blessed me all these years, but now I’ll work as a dedicated BJP worker,” Prasada said after he was presented a saffron scarf by BJP leader Piyush Goyal at party headquarters in Delhi.

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Who is Jitin Prasada?

Jitin Prasada, once considered close to Rahul Gandhi, comes from a political background. His grandfather, Jyoti Prasad, served legislative and local body positions and his father Jitendra Prasada was the political advisor to two Congress prime ministers — Rajiv Gandhi (1991) and P V Narasimha Rao (1994).  

Jitin Prasada graduated from the Sri Ram College of Commerece, Delhi University with a B Com (Hons) degree. He then completed his MBA from IMI, New Delhi.

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In 2001, Prasada started his political career as a general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress. He was elected to Parliament three years later from his home constituency Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He won the 2009 general elections from Dhaurahra. However, the 47-year-old had to face defeat in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, losing to BJP’s Rekha Verma.

Prasada served as the Minister of State, Human Resources (2012-2014), Minister of State, Road Transport and Highways (2011-2012), Minister of State, Petroleum and Natural Gas (2009-2011) and Minister of State, Steel (2008-2009).