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Former Gujarat minister Khumansinh Vansiya re-joins BJP
Former Gujarat minister Khumansinh Vansiya said that the BJP can win all 182 seats if the government removes liquor ban in the state. He clarified that it was his personal opinion.
AHMEDABAD: Former Gujarat forest and urban development minister Khumansinh Vansiya, who contested as an independent candidate in the 2017 assembly elections, re-joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday.
Vansiya, who in 2019 said that liquor ban should be removed from the state, reiterated his stand. “It was my personal opinion that prohibition on liquor should be lifted in Gujarat. I firmly believe that if the BJP does that it will win all 182 seats. But as I said it is my personal opinion. I am bound by whatever the party’s decision is,” Vansiya said on Saturday at a press conference at the Gujarat BJP headquarters, Kamalam, in Gandhinagar, where he was welcomed to the party by state BJP chief CR Paatil and others.
Vansiya played an important role in strengthening the BJP in Bharuch and was elected as MLA from Vagra constituency in 1995. He was made the forest minister in the ninth Gujarat Assembly under the leadership of then chief minister Keshubhai Patel. He joined the Rashtriya Janata Party during the revolt engineered by Shankersinh Vaghela against the BJP leadership in Gujarat. When Vaghela became the chief minister, Vansia was made the minister for state for urban development.
Vansia later joined the Congress but returned to the Gujarat BJP sometime in 2005-06. In 2017, he contested as an independent from Jambusar constituency that was won by Sanjay Solanki of the Congress.
“In 1973, I was in Class 11 when Jan Sangh’s Gujarat state convention was held. I had donned a Jan Sangh scarf then. I was also jailed during the emergency. In 1980 I was the BJP secretary for Bharuch district and went on to become general secretary and president of the district. I was elected from Vagra assembly seat in 1995. I travelled with Modi sir by a scooter and an old jeep. I have been in regular touch with Paatilji... I have joined the BJP so that I can help the party in the upcoming assembly elections,” he told media persons.
In 2012, Modi, who was then chief minister of Gujarat, had attended the wedding of Vansiya’s daughter in Bharuch.
