The articulate Gourav Vallabh joined the BJP on Thursday hours after quitting the “directionless” Congress, saying anti-Sanatan slogans and abuse of wealth creators were “unacceptable and unpardonable” to him.

The former Congress spokesperson said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda of “Viksit Bharat” had attracted him to the BJP.

Vallabh cited the Congress’s economic policies and its rejection of the invite to the January 22 consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya as key reasons for his switch of loyalties.

“A grand temple to Lord Ram has been built. An invitation comes but the Congress party rejects the invitation. This was not acceptable to me,” Vallabh said.

He said “dharm” (religion) was non-negotiable to him and underlined that he had withdrawn from media briefings and TV debates on the Congress’s behalf after the party refused the Ayodhya invite.

Vallabh, a chartered accountant and professor of finance, posted his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on X hours before joining the BJP.

“I can neither raise anti-Sanatan slogans nor abuse wealth creators day in and day out. Therefore, I resign from all posts and primary membership of the party,” he wrote in the post, attaching a two-page resignation letter.

“I am a Hindu by birth and a teacher by deed,” he said in the letter.

He accused the Congress of having become “directionless”. He said he had been aggrieved by the party’s decision to skip the temple ceremony, and stressed that the Congress leadership’s silence on anti-Sanatan statements by its allies was unacceptable to him.

These positions and the party’s demand for a caste census are “sending a misleading message among the people of the Congress favouring only one particular religion”, Vallabh wrote.

After joining the BJP at the party headquarters, Vallabh slammed the Congress’s economic policies.

“Wealth creation can’t be a crime,” he said, accusing the current Congress leadership of ridiculing the economic reform policies of previous Congress-led governments headed by P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.

“The current Congress is criticising the very economic policies of liberalisation and globalisation pursued by previous Congress governments. This is not acceptable,” he said.

After listing his two main reasons for leaving the Congress — religion and economic policy — Vallabh said “rashtraniti” (national policy) had led him to the BJP.

He claimed to have always pursued issue-based politics and said Modi’s vision of a “Viksit Bharat” had attracted him. He said that as a BJP member he wanted to contribute to nation-building.

Vallabh had made his electoral debut in 2019 as Congress candidate from Jamshedpur East in the Jharkhand Assembly polls, but lost. The Congress fielded him in the Rajasthan Assembly polls last year but he lost again.

Along with Vallabh, former Bihar Congress president Anil Sharma and RJD leader Upendra Prasad too joined the BJP.