National

Six dissident MLAs quit BJP

GANDHINAGAR: Six dissident BJP members of the Gujarat Assembly on Saturday resigned the primary membership of the party and from the Assembly as a prelude to joining the Congress.

They were Mr Dhirubhai Gajera, Mr Narendrasinh Jadeja, Mr Gopal Dua, Mr Bavkubhai Unghad, Mr Balubhai Tanti and Mr Becharbhai Bhadani. They called on the Speaker, Mangaldas Patel, and submitted their resignation as MLAs. Later Mr. Gajera told the media persons on behalf of the dissident members that they would soon be joining the Congress and contest the next month’s Assembly elections.

The dissident members also called on the former Chief Minister, Suresh Mehta, to seek his blessings.

In a cryptic remark, Mr Mehta said he too might resign from the BJP. Mr Mehta, however, is unlikely to join the Congress though he would campaign for all the candidates opposing the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. With Mr Sidhhartha Parmar and Ms Ramilaben Desai, who resigned from the Assembly earlier, the total number of BJP members to quit the House went up to eight while four Congress members, who have since joined the BJP, have also resigned from the Assembly.

Meanwhile, Mr Modi made full use of a function organised by the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry to canvass support for his party among the trading community in the Assembly elections. The function was organised to felicitate him and his cabinet colleagues for abolishing octroi from all the seven municipal corporation areas in the state.

Not only that Mr Modi and his cabinet colleagues were given a standing ovation by several thousand trading community members of the Chamber, representatives of hundreds of trade and industrial associations from all over the state also came to the dais to thank the chief minister for his “bold step.”

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