AICC in-charge for Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil on Tuesday said he will file a criminal as well defamation case against Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani over the latter's reported claim that
Gohil was responsible for the attacks on north Indian migrant labourers in Gujarat.
Rupani had, on Monday, blamed Gohil for the attacks.
There has been an exodus of north Indian migrant labourers from Gujarat recently in the wake of attacks on them following the alleged rape of a 14-month-old toddler in north Gujarat by a man from Bihar.
Asking the chief minister to take his words back, Gohil said he is giving a 15-day legal notice period to Rupani after which he will file the criminal case and a defamation suit if the chief minister fails to withdraw his remarks.
When asked if Rupani was referring to Congress' second-in-command in Bihar, Radhanpur MLA Alpesh Thakor, Gohil said that if this was the case, the chief minister should clarify that he was not pinning the blame on the Congress in-charge. Gohil further said Gujarat chief minister was not naive to mention “Congress in-charge” instead of Thakore's designation.
Thakor received flak from various quarters after his reported inflammatory speech against north Indian migrant labourers. However, after Congress president Rahul Gandhi spoke to him, the Radhanpur MLA changed his rhetoric.
The police had arrested a few Congress workers for the attacks on migrant labourers, but no BJP member was arrested in connection with the incidents.
Alleging that the investigation into the attack is biased, Gohil demanded that a sitting judge should conduct the probe. He showed social media posts of several BJP leaders trying to instigate people to attack north Indians to substantiate his claims.
Gohil alleged that the attacks on the migrant labourers were a part of planned conspiracy of the BJP to divert the attention of the public from the falling rupee, inflation and other problems faced by the Union government.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat Congress will organise a protest on October 18 against the Gujarat government's alleged failure on various fronts, including increasing excise tax on fuel and women's safety.
State Congress president Amit Chavda said party leaders and workers will burn the effigy of Ravana, and the 10 heads of the mythological character will symbolise 10 failures of the BJP government.
