Double blow to Congress as former Guj CM Shankersinh Vaghela quits post

GANDHINAGAR: Former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela announced his exit from the Congress on Friday but left everyone guessing on his next political move. Vaghela said he would not go back to his former party, which he quit as the high command had unheeded his suggestions on strategies for the ensuing assembly elections.

“Today, I free myself from Congress and I set Congress free,” Vaghela said in a meeting that was held in Ahmedabad on Friday as part of his birthday celebrations. More than 10 MLAs are learnt to be in touch with Vaghela and expected to quit, with most of them looking at BJP as an option.

The septuagenarian leader thanked his former colleagues from the RSS to Jan Sangh and Congress, and specially mentioned the names of Ahmed Patel and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. While he resigned from the position of Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Vaghela said he would resign as MLA after the Rajya Sabha polls. Apart from a couple of Congress MLAs, NCP Gujarat president Jayant Patel and NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja at-tended the event.

At the rally he said he had asked his MLAs to decide on their course of action as they deemed fit. His address, dwelt mostly on his political journey and his achievements as chief minister, clearly refraining from outlining any future trajectory for his supporters.

Congress would, however, draw comfort from the fact that only two of its MLAs, including Vaghela’s son, Mahendrasinh, attended the event. Vaghela, upset with the party high command for not being declared the chief ministerial candidate for the assembly elections, had stopped attending state Congress meetings for some time and had even ‘unfollowed’ Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Twitter to register his protest.

Vaghela said he was left with no option, claiming that state Congress leaders “got together to push me out of the party” after he told them to do their homework to take on the BJP in the upcoming polls. “You don’t fight the BJP and won’t allow those who do to fight them,” Vaghela, who had a long association with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his RSS days, said.