Congress faces exodus of Gujarat MLAs; two more set to quit

New Delhi/Ahmedabad, March 15 (IANS): Ahead of Rajya Sabha polls, the Congress is now facing a rebellion in in Gujarat with four MLAs having resigned so far and two more set to put in their papers, top sources said.

The Gujarat Speaker has confirmed that four MLAs have given their resignation to his office. These include Somabhai Patel, Praveen Maru and Pradyuman Singh Jadeja.

According to the sources, two more Congress MLAs from south Gujarat – Jeetu Chowdhary and Mangal Gavit – are set to resign and are unreachable by party leaders.

The exodus started after the ruling BJP fielded the fifth candidate, Narhari Amin, who is a former Congressmen.

The Congress state unit had proposed two candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls – Arjun Modhwadia and Bharatsinh Solanki but the party pitched in for Shaktisinh Gohil and Rajiv Shukla. After stiff opposition from the state unit, Shukla was dropped and replaced by Solanki, son of former Chief Minister and Union Minister Madhavsinh Solanki.

Modwadia, meanwhile, has said that he is more interested in state politics.

But now after the rebellion from the MLAs, Congress is only likely to win one seat in the state, and the fate of its second candidate depends on the rebels.