Gujarat’s former Leader of the Opposition Arjun Modhwadia on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, a day after he resigned from the Congress.

Ambarish Der, a former working president of the Congress’ state unit, also quit the party and joined the BJP. Both leaders cited the Congress’ decision to decline the invitation for the Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya on January 22 as a reason for leaving the party.

The two leaders, along with several others, joined the BJP in the presence of its state chief CR Paatil.

This comes ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra starting its Gujarat leg on March 7.

On Monday, Modhwadia, who was also an MLA from Porbandar, submitted his resignation to Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary. In a letter addressed to party president Mallikarjun Kharge, he also resigned from all Congress posts.

“Prabhu Ram is not just Pujaniya to Hindus, but he is the aastha of Bharat,” he said in the letter to Kharge. “Declining the invitation to witness pran pratishtha mahotsav [consecration festivities] has hurt the sentiments of the people of India. Congress as a party failed to assess the sentiments of the people.”

Der also resigned from the Congress on Monday after a meeting with Paatil, The Indian Express reported. But the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee said it had suspended Der “for anti-party activities” on Sunday.

“I have not received any suspension letter,” Der said. “But I have resigned from the post. I have sent an email as well as a fax to the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president.”

Der said the Congress’ stand on the Ram temple matter was “unreasonable”. “Political parties may have different ideologies but the intention is the same – the service of the people,” he said.

“If people have desired something for over 500 years and when the justice system of the country has delivered a verdict by taking into confidence all stakeholders involved, not attending the event was unreasonable,” Der added.

On January 10, the Congress said that it would not attend the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya as it was “clearly an RSS-BJP [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party] event”. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is the parent organisation of the ruling BJP.

The Ram temple has been built on the site of the razed Babri mosque on the orders of the Supreme Court. The Babri mosque was demolished by Hindutva extremists on December 6, 1992, because they believed that it stood on the spot where the deity Ram had been born.