Continuing its crackdown on the rebels, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday suspended six more of its senior leaders, including three former parliamentarians.
The Gujarat state unit of the BJP said the party had suspended AK Patel, Lalit Mehta and Chandresh Patel. All the three were former MPs.
Three other party functionaries suspended are former party vice president Jeevraj Dharukavala, former Surat mayor Fakir Chauhan and former Gujarat minister Arvind Patel, the BJP said in a statement.
The party had on Friday announced the suspension of Somabhai Patel and Vallabh Kathria and issued show cause notices to Keshubhai Patel and Kanshiram Rana.
Somabhai Patel reacted to the announcement on Saturday saying that he was joining the Congress, which he said implemented whatever it promised.