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Gujarat Cong MLA Chirag Patel quits assembly, attacks party leadership
Chirag Patel’s exit on Tuesday reduces the Congress’s strength in the 182-seat assembly to 16, down from the 17 seats it won in last year’s elections
AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Congress legislator Chirag Patel resigned from the state assembly on Tuesday, saying the party was being operated from Delhi directly by the central leadership as if they were running a princely state from air conditioned bungalows.
Patel’s exit from the assembly reduces the Congress’s tally to 16 members in the 182-seat Gujarat assembly. He is the second Opposition legislator to resign from the assembly over the past week. On December 13, Bhupendra Bhayani of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) resigned from the party and the assembly.
BJP retained power in the state elections last year winning 156 seats. The Congress won 17 seats and AAP won five seats. Three other seats went to independent candidates and one to the Samajwadi Party.
On Tuesday, Chirag Patel, who won the Khambhat assembly seat by a narrow margin in 2022, handed over his resignation to assembly speaker Shankar Chaudhary.
Patel claimed that more Congress MLAs may also resign if the situation does not improve. “I decided to resign after consulting people from my constituency. Like me, many MLAs are unhappy because they feel suffocated in the party. Groupism is at its peak in the Congress, and local party affairs are operated from Delhi directly by the central leadership as if they are running a princely state while sitting in air-conditioned bungalows,” Patel said, according to news agency PTI.
“There are many reasons for leaving Congress. The main one is that the party’s ideas are against the country, and Congress leaders don’t have a positive approach,” he said, adding that he believed in nationalistic politics and felt he couldn’t serve his constituency properly in the Congress.
Patel further said that while the upcoming Ram temple in Ayodhya was a matter of great importance for the entire Hindu population, Congress leaders have not said a single word in favour of the temple’s construction.
The two legislators are expected to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.
