NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, JUNE 4
Day after three Patidar MLAs from Congress had met Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel, two other Congress MLAs have tendered their resignations ahead of the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls for four seats from the state.
Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi said Congress MLAs Akshay Patel and Jitu Chaudhary met him on Wednesday and handed over their resignations.
“I have accepted their resignations. They now cease to be legislators,” Trivedi told reporters in Gandhinagar on Thursday.
Patel represented Karjan seat of Vadodara, while Chaudhary had won from Kaprada seat of Valsad.
Earlier, in March also, five MLAs of the Congress had resigned.
In the 182-member state Assembly, the ruling BJP has 103 MLAs, and the opposition Congress now has 66 legislators. Since 2017 polls, number of Gujarat Congress MLAs will have fallen from 81 to 66.
Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani accused the BJP of breaking the Congress to win the Rajya Sabha polls.
“The BJP has opened its shop to buy Congress MLAs from the money amassed through corrupt means. The BJP is using the state machinery and money power to win elections,” he alleged.
However, BJP’s Narhari Amin refuted the allegations.
“I believe that some more Congress MLAs would also resign in near future. They are leaving Congress because they are unhappy with the party leadership,” Amin said.
Names of five candidates – three from the BJP and two from the Congress – were recently announced for elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from the state.
Polls to the four seats will be held on June 19. The Congress was looking to win two of the four seats; the resignations mean the party will have to be content with one.
The BJP has fielded Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramila Bara, and Narhari Amin, while the Congress has fielded senior leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki for the polls.
