Five Gujarat MLAs absent for 15 or more days during Budget Session, health and social reasons cited

Their absence was condoned by the House based on a recommendation by the Committee on Absence of Members in the recently-concluded Monsoon Session

Written by Parimal A Dabhi

Ahmedabad | September 15, 2025 09:29 PM IST

2 min read

The Committee tabled its third report recommending to condone the absence of the MLAs in its sixth session.

Five MLAs from the Gujarat Assembly, including four from the ruling BJP and one from the Samajwadi Party, were absent from House proceedings for 15 or more days during the Budget Session in February-March, citing health, social or religious grounds. Their absence was condoned by the House based on a recommendation by the Committee on Absence of Members in the recently-concluded Monsoon Session. The BJP MLAs include Gajendrasinh Parmar from Sabarkantha’s Prantij constituency, Pabubha Manek from Devbhumi Dwarka district’s Dwarka constituency, Jayanti Rathva from Chhota Udepur district’s Jetpur constituency and R C Patel from Navsari district’s Jalalpore constituency.

The fifth MLA, Kandhal Jadeja, is from Porbandar district’s Kutiyana constituency.

The Committee tabled its third report recommending to condone the absence of the MLAs in its sixth session. The Committee took a decision in this regard after considering the applications of the five MLAs in that regard. The report was accepted by the House on September 10. According to the report, Parmar, Rathva and Patel remained absent on health grounds whereas Manek and Jadeja remained absent on social/religious reasons.

A former minister, Parmar is facing rape and allied charges in an FIR registered against him at Sector 21 police station of Gandhinagar. The FIR was registered by the state government in October last year after the matter went to Gujarat High Court. It was registered under the charges of rape and criminal intimidation and sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

During the budget session, Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani had also raised the issue while demanding Parmar’s arrest in the case.

The last budget session of the Assembly was held between February 19, 2025 and March 28, 2025.

Notably, Kandhal Jadeja and R C Patel had also remained absent for 15 or more days in the second and fourth sessions of the Assembly as well. The Committee on Absence of Members is chaired by BJP MLA from Savarkundla constituency Mahesh Kaswala. It has jurisdiction over the issue of members’ absence in the Assembly, except the ones who are ministers.

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