Former Chief Minister of Gujarat Shankersinh Vaghela on Tuesday joined Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in presence of party chief Sharad Pawar in Ahmedabad.
Ahmedabad: Former Chief Minister of Gujarat Shankersinh Vaghela joins Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in presence of party chief Sharad Pawar. pic.twitter.com/ey6O0mo9ig
— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2019
Staunch Leader Shanker Singh Vaghela started his political career with RSS and Jana Sangh has been associated with Indian National Congress for long and had held many responsibilities. Vaghela had left the Congress before the 2017 state assembly polls after he and a few MLAs supporting him voted against Congress candidate for the Rajya Sabha, Ahmed Patel and backed BJP nominee Balwantsinh Rajput.
Vaghela, however, did not join the ruling BJP and floated his own Political Outfit in the Gujarat State polls but failed to make an impact.
Before joining Congress, he was associated with Bhartiya Janta Party. After the BJP came to power in 1995 in Gujarat and chose to make Keshubhai Patel chief minister instead of him, Vaghela engineered a split in the saffron outfit and became the CM in 1996 with outside support of the Congress.
Later, he joined the Congress and served as Textile Minister in the Manmohan Singh government.
Addition of Stauch leader in NCP Camp is expected to brighten the Chance of the Party vis-a-vis Lok Sabha Polls 2019. His entry is also expected to make triangular Contest in Gujarat.
In 2017 State polls, both Congress and NCP fought elections separately with NCP managed to win a single seat out of 182 assembly seat.
I have discussed this issue with Pawar Saheb. I think it is a good thing. In public life a good platform is required to raise issues of people and nobody should say no to such things,” he told reporters when asked about reports of him joining the NCP last week.
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