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Nandini Oza
Nandini Oza

GUJARAT ELECTIONS

Former Congress leader Vaghela congratulates BJP and RaGa

shankersinh-vaghela-week [File] Former Gujarat CM Shankersinh Vaghela

As the BJP is set to rule Gujarat for one more time and the opposition Congress has improved its tally compared to 2012 elections, former Gujarat CM and Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela has spoken his mind.

After quitting the Congress over alleged differences with the party high command ahead of Rajya Sabha elections, Vaghela was heading Jan Vikalp Morcha. Hundred and five candidates of Jan Vikalp Morcha had contested the election and none of the candidates won.

At his residence at “Vasant Vegda”, near Gandhinagar, Vaghela said that he congratulates the BJP and Rahul Gandhi, but said that when senior leaders are ignored it becomes difficult to get a majority.

Vaghela said that when he was in the Congress, he had made it clear to the party high command that he was not in the race to become chief minister, but it was necessary to do the homework to get a majority.

The veteran leader said that discontent was bound to happen in the party when people, who have just joined the party, seek rights and the party agrees. Vaghela was indirectly referring to OBC leader Alpesh Thakore, who rejoined the party, ahead of elections.

Party sources said that the Congress had finalized the list for North Gujarat. However, names of some leaders were changed after Thakore intervened. The sources also claimed that the Congress would have fared better had the party not changed the candidates.

Vaghela said that at a time when 60 per cent of population is with the Congress and the results are in contradiction, then it needs introspection. He was reffering to Patidar discontent, anti-incumbency and Dalits, Kshatriyas, minorities being pro-Congress.

He hoped that people do not have to stage agitations and their problems should be solved before hand.

He said that the JVM was an experiment and that the candidates had contested the elections on their merits.

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