While welcoming Congress leaders to the BJP on Saturday, Kailash Vijayvargiya’s comment went viral.

As several Congress leaders on Saturday joined the BJP, a video from the event went viral in which BJP minister Kailash Vijayvargiya exclaimed that he had to welcome those to the party who hurled abuses at the BJP and the BJP leaders during the Assembly election. Vijayvargiya’s comment was loud enough to be recorded on the video as he welcomed Sanjay Shukla and others to the party. “Teri gaali suni ab tereko lena pad raha hai (We had to take your abuses and now we have to take you to the party),” Kailash Vijayvargiya said with a chuckle.

Days ahead of the Lok Sabha election, a major blow came from Madhya Pradesh as former Union minister Suresh Pachouri, known to be close to the Gandhi family, ex-MP Gajendra Singh Rajukhedi joined the BJP. Former MLAs Sanjay Shukla (Indore-1), Arjun Paliya (Pipariya), Vishal Patel (Depalpur) also joined the BJP.

71-year-old Pachouri was Union minister of state for defence (defence production and supplies) and also served as a four-time Rajya Sabha member of the Congress. Key positions that he held in the Congress included the post of the party’s Madhya Pradesh unit president, and state unit president of the Youth Congress but as he changed his allegiance, he said the Congress had become irrelevant.

After the event in which BJP welcomes several Congress bigwigs to the party, Kailash Vijayvargiya said more people will join the BJP in the coming days.

The BJP won the Assembly election in a sweep winning 163 seats out of 230 while the Congress managed to secure 66 seats. Speculations were rife about former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath quitting the Congress to join the BJP but Kamal Nath dismissed the speculations though rumour mills have not stopped as all 7MLAs from Kamal Nath’s Chhindwara skipped Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.