NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, MAR 2
Owning up moral responsibility for the Congress’ debacle in the elections to local bodies in Gujarat, state unit president Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani resigned from their posts on Tuesday.
Chavda said people had raised doubts about EVMs and all these things should be probed.
A party spokesperson said it was now up to the top brass of the Congress to decide the future course of action.
“Taking the responsibility of the election results as state Congress chief, I have submitted my resignation to party president Sonia Gandhi,” Chavda told reporters, adding that he would work as a common party worker from now on.
On Tuesday, the ruling BJP won all the 31 district panchayats, 70 out of 81 municipalities, and was far ahead of its main rival Congress in the 231 taluka panchayats.
गुजरात के जिला- तालुका पंचायत, नगरपालिका चुनाव के परिणाम अपेक्षा से विपरीत रहे है।
जनता के जनादेश का स्वीकार है, विजयी प्रत्याशीओ को शुभकामनाएं, मतदाताओ और @INCGujarat के सभी कार्यकर्ताओं का आभार।
हम जनता के हक्क-अधिकार और सन्मान की लड़ाई लड़ते रहेंगे।
— Amit Chavda (@AmitChavdaINC) March 2, 2021
The saffron party has won 6,110 out of the total 8,474 seats for which results have been declared so far.
The Congress could bag only 1,768 seats and has won only three municipalities but failed to open an account in any district panchayat. The Grand Old Party could win only a few taluka panchayat bodies.
“The election results are totally opposite to what our expectations were. We had received good responses from people during our campaigning but the results do not reflect it. People have raised doubts on EVMs and all these things should be probed,” Chavda said.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi confirmed that Dhanani has also sent his resignation to the party leadership in Delhi.
“The party leadership has received both the resignations. Now it is up to the party brass to decide on the replacement of these leaders,” Doshi said.
He said the Central leadership of the Congress has asked Chavda and Dhanani to continue on their posts till the time their replacements are announced.
In the first phase of civic polls held last month in Gujarat, the BJP had won all the six municipal corporations.
આભાર ગુજરાત
મોંધા પેટ્રોલ-ડિઝલ અને ગેસનો ડામ
મોંઘા સારવાર-શિક્ષણ અને વિજળી
કાળા કાયદાઓ તથા આકરા કરવેરા
વચ્ચે મંદી-મોઘવારી, બેરોજગારીને
હરાવવામા સતત નિષ્ફળ નિવડ્યાના
અફસોસ સહિત નબળા પરિણામોથી
નતમસ્તક,બદલાતી જવાબદારીઓ વચ્ચે પણ#લોકશાહી_બચાવો_અભિયાન ને
અવિરત આગળ વધારવાનો સંકલ્પ. pic.twitter.com/G0CgW0IC2p— Paresh Dhanani (@paresh_dhanani) March 2, 2021
3-time Cong MLA, kin of legislators trounced; BTP MLA’s son bites the dust
Among the losers on the Congress side were an MLA and sons of seven sitting MLAs.
In a major upset, Niranjan Patel, a three-time Congress MLA from Petlad in the Anand district, lost from ward number 2 and 5 of Petlad municipality.
His son, Saurabh Patel, too lost to the BJP in the same municipality.
Vijay Parmar, son of Congress MLA Punambhai Parmar from Sojitra in Anand, lost to a BJP candidate from Moraj seat in Tarapur taluka panchayat, while the former’s nephew Nikunj Parmar also tasted defeat.
Yash Kotwal, son of Khedbrahma Congress MLA Ashvin Kotwal, was trounced in Chitariya in tribal-dominated Vijaynagar taluka panchayat in Sabarkantha district.
Bhiloda Congress MLA Anil Joshiara also saw his son Keval biting the dust from Upsal seat in Bhiloda taluka panchayat in the Arvalli district.
Similar was the fate of Paresh Vansh, son of six-time Congress MLA Punja Vansh from Una in Gir Somnath district, with the former losing to his BJP rival in Rajpara.
Vikram Madam, Congress MLA from Khambhalia in Devbhumi Dwarka, saw his son Karan losing from Vadtara seat in the district panchayat polls, while Ramdev Modhwadia, brother of former Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhwadia, was trounced in Kindarkheda seat of Porbandar taluka panchayat.
Bharatiya Tribal Party MLA Chhotu Vasava’s son Dilip Vasava also failed to pass the electoral test from Rajpardi seat of Bharuch district panchayat.
Incidentally, the ruling BJP had decided to not give tickets to the kin of sitting legislators and party leaders.
