Former Congress heavyweight Shankersinh Vaghela, fell out with the Congress after the party reportedly refused to pay heed to his demands that he be declared the chief ministerial nominee and given a free hand in selecting the party candidates.
Recently after the calculated statics of Vaghela counter attacked BJP in Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls, marking the victory for Congress candidate Ahmed Patel, Vaghela has become cautious about his steps. A meeting of Vaghela’s supporters was held at his residence at Gandhinagar on Sunday, which was interestingly not attended by any of his 13 former Congress MLAs, believed to be his loyalists.
While addressing the meeting Vaghela, maintaining suspense over his future political move, the veteran politician today ruled out floating any outfit or forming the third front. He said that the meeting was not any political gathering but he was only meeting his supporters to listen to the problems faced by the people in Gujarat and to discuss the possible solutions to them. “This was a gathering to discuss various issues concerning people and how we can help them. There was no talk about floating a party or forming a third front. As people’s sufferings are mounting, my supporters wanted me to go between them and ease their pain,” Vaghela told reporters.
Vaghela was a BJP member till 1990’s and had than clearfief that he will not join back BJP when he quit he party.
At the meeting, Vaghela’s supporters passed a resolution urging him to “become active in order to ease the pains of people of Gujarat who are facing many problems at present”. The resolution, which was shared with the media, was passed by around 250 supporters of the Kshatriya strongman at the meeting. As per the resolution, the issues like price-rise, high electricity charges, unemployment, and costly education have affected the common man in Gujarat the most.
While addressing his supporters, Vaghela asked them to take care of each of the 182 constituencies in Gujarat. “I just gave an example that you (supporters) are more than 182. Thus, I urge you to take care of each of the 182 seats, so that people start putting trust in you. Instead of working for any party, my message was that we all must remain by the side of truth,” he said.