Gujarat Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia on Monday resigned from the party and is likely to join the BJP ahead of Lok Sabha elections. The MLA from Porbandar also resigned from the Gujarat assembly.
Modhwadia may join the BJP on the day when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will enter Gujarat.
The MLA from Porbandar tendered his resignation to Gujarat Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary in Gandhinagar. The Speaker’s office confirmed that Chaudhary has accepted Modhwadia’s resignation.With his resignation, the opposition party’s strength has reduced to 14 in the 182-member Assembly.
“When a party loses its connection with the people, it cannot survive for long. The people of the country wanted the Ram Temple to be constructed. The Congress had also decided that after a constitutional verdict from the Supreme Court, we would support it. Even then the invitation to the Pran Pratishtha was declined. I raised my voice then too, that this would hurt the public sentiment and we should not make such political decisions and that decision showed a lack of connection with the people. I tried to convey my message in several other matters, but I was not successful. Finally, I decided to resign today,” Modhwadia said.
Modhwadia, one of the senior-most and influential opposition leaders of Gujarat, had defeated BJP heavyweight Babu Bokhiria in the Porbandar Assembly constituency in the 2022 elections.The resignation of the senior leader comes days before Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ is to enter Gujarat on March 7.
In a letter to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Modhwadia said that the party has hurt the sentiments of the people of India by declining the invitation for Ram Lalla’s Pran Pratishtha ceremony.
“Prabhu Ram is not just Pujaniya to Hindus, but he is the Aastha of Bharat. Declining the invitation to witness pran pratishtha has hurt the sentiments of the people of India. Congress as a party failed to assess the sentiments of the people…To further distract and humiliate this pious occasion, Rahul Gandhi attempted to create ruckus in Assam which further angered our party cadres and citizens of Bharat…,” he stated.
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
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