AHMEDABAD, 19 November 2007 — Dealing a big blow to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi before the coming state elections, six Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) members of legislative assembly (MLAs) have resigned from the legislature as well as from primary membership of the party.
The legislators — Dhiru Gajera (Surat), Bechar Bhadani, Bavku Unghad, Balu Tanti, Gopal Dhua and Narendrasinh Jadeja — met assembly Speaker Mangaldas Patel and submitted their resignation letters yesterday.
“We have resigned from the legislative assembly and from the primary membership of the BJP,” Gajera told reporters. “We will be joining Congress party in a day or two,” the BJP rebel leader said.
Gajera, Bhadani, Unghad and Tanti were recently suspended from the party for dissident activities, while BJP is yet to take action against the other two legislators.
The six rebels are likely to contest the elections, to be held in two phases on Dec. 11 and 16, on Congress tickets, sources said.
Earlier, two other rebel BJP legislators — Siddharth Parmar and Ramila Desai — were suspended from the party for anti-party activities. The dissident BJP legislators, unhappy with Modi’s autocratic style of functioning, have been voicing their grievances for over an year now.
These legislators, backed by veteran BJP leader Keshubhai Patel (a staunch Modi detractor), had held several meetings recently against the chief minister in Saurashtra and south Gujarat region.
On the other hand, Modi claimed that Gujarat has become “crime free” under his regime. Modi said he has made Gujarat free of crime by eliminating “mafia gangs” which used to operate in the state.
“At one point of time, Gujarat was known for the various notorious mafia gangs which used to operate from the state,” he said addressing a function organized by the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI) to felicitate him here late Saturday.
