Four Gujarat Congress MLAs resign ahead of Rajya Sabha polls

In a fresh setback for Gujarat Congress, four of its MLAs are said to have tendered resignations before the state Assembly speaker, a day before two of its most senior state leaders filed their nominations for Rajya Sabha polls scheduled to be held on March 26. Amidst speculations of more such resignations, it is being rumoured that one of the two candidates will withdraw from the contest.

From Sunday morning, reports of four Congress MLAs' resignations started flashing in the local media which was denied by party's state president Amit Chavda. In the afternoon, Chavda told reporters, "BJP is spreading rumours in the media to defame our MLAs. No one has resigned. The BJP and the Assembly speakers, who are are saying that resignations have been tendered, should give us proof."

Hours later, Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi came out in public with a short video clip in which he confirmed the reports of resignation. He referred to the remarks made by Chavda, without naming him, to say that he had to issue this message to confirm that four of his party's MLAs have resigned and are not longer legislatures.

Trivedi said, "Yesterday between 5 PM and 12 AM, four Congress MLAs came to me and tendered their resignations on their own. They read out to me the contents of their letters. I verified their signatures and then accepted their resignation." However, Trivedi has not named these MLAs.

Minutes later, Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani told BJP workers at party's headquarters in Gandhinagar that “BJP will win all the three seats for which its leaders have filed nominations." At the event all the three candidates- Abhay Bharadwaj, Ramila Bara and Narhari Amin. Amin is a Congress turncoat who joined BJP in 2012. According to speculation, at least two to three more Congress MLAs are expected to resign or they may cross-vote to favour BJP candidates.

Meanwhile, the Congress continues to struggle to keep its team intact. With the resignations of its MLAs and at least two to three more such resignations, it is being speculated that one of the candidates will have to withdraw from the contest. The Congress has fielded two senior local leaders- Shaktisinh Gohil, who is currently in-charge of Bihar Congress, and Bharatsinh Solanki, former state party chief and ex minister.

Congress leaders were apprehending such situation and had started sending its MLAs to neighbouring Rajasthan to keep them away from getting trapped. First batch of about 15 MLAs was sent to Jaipur on Saturday while many were expected leave gradually since Assembly sessions is going on.

This is the not the first time that the Congress is struggling to keep its leaders together. In the past two separate Rajya Sabha polls, Congress barely managed keep its leaders united. In 2017, it faced several cross-voting and defection, in 2017, one of the most prominent youth leader Alpesh Thakor cross-voted and then resigned to joined BJP.