Vaghela aligns with 'Congress'

Former Gujarat chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, who floated the Jan Vikalp Morcha to establish a third front in the state on Wednesday, allied with the Congress to fight the Assembly election.

The only twist in the tale is that it is not the 132-year-old Indian National Congress that he is allying with, but another dormant political party — All India Hindustan Congress Party (AIHC), headquartered in Jaipur.

It is a political party registered with the Election Commission, and has a symbol of a tractor allotted to it. Its website states that it is led by Budhprakash Sharma, whom it describes as a “legendary political leader” and who was once president of the ‘Rashtriya Sonia Gandhi Brigade Congress Party’.

“We were set up last year and as this is our first electoral venture in Gujarat, we have a poor base in Gujarat.

During our last few visits to the state, we found that the citizens are fed up with the BJP and the Congress. “So, we were looking to align with a leadership that is well accepted, has not been charged with corruption and is above casteism. We have handed over our party symbol to Bapu (Vaghela),” Anil Sharma, national general secretary, AIHC, told mediapersons in Ahmedabad.

Sharma said that AIHC will contest all the 182 Assembly seats during the elections, slated for December 9 and 14.

Vaghela said, “The Jan Vikalp does not have enough time to go through the procedure of registering a new party.

If they announce elections today, we need to undergo a process for at least 30 days to finalise the symbol So, we are allying with the AIHC party.”