Political Turmoil In Gujarat As MLA Resignations Surge Ahead Of Lok Sabha Elections
MLA Dharmendrasinh Vaghela
Ahead of the eagerly awaited Lok Sabha elections in a few months, Gujarat is experiencing a series of MLA resignations. Dharmendrasinh Vaghela, an Independent member of the Gujarat legislative assembly, has joined the trend after MLAs from Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Vaghela, who represented the Vaghodia assembly constituency in Vadodara district, submitted his resignation to assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary in Gandhinagar on Thursday.
Following his resignation, Vaghela stated that he made the decision to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in their efforts to establish 'Ram Rajya' in the country. He emphasized that the decision was made after consulting with his constituency's people and was not based on any promises from the party regarding government positions or renomination.
Having previously been associated with the BJP, Vaghela contested the 2017 elections as an Independent after not receiving a ticket from the party. Despite facing defeat, he rejoined the BJP shortly thereafter. In 2022, facing a similar situation, he contested as an Independent and defeated the six-term MLA, Madhu Srivastava.
While there are speculations about Vaghela contesting the assembly by-election from the same seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, he has not publicly clarified his stance on this matter. Vaghela, belonging to the Kshatriya community, is the third MLA in Gujarat to resign from the state assembly in the past two months.
Other recent resignations include AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani from the Visavadar seat in December 2023 and Congress MLA CJ Chavda from the Vijapur seat. After Vaghela's resignation, the current assembly composition is 156 BJP MLAs, 15 Congress MLAs, four Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, and two independent MLAs. Anticipating by-elections for the vacant seats, the BJP remains optimistic about winning all four seats, aligning with the Lok Sabha elections. There are also speculations that more Congress MLAs may join the BJP in the coming days.