Three independents who fought election as party rebels extend support to BJP

The MLAs - Dhavalsinh Zala, Dharmendrasinh Vaghela, and Mavji Desai - stated that they were ‘inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’. All three had contested as rebel candidates of the BJP.

(From left) Mavji Desai, Governor Acharya Devvrat, Dharmendrasinh Vaghela and Dhavalsinh Zala.

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Three independents who won the recently concluded Gujarat Assembly elections have extended their support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stating they were “inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”. All three had won the elections as rebel candidates of the BJP.

The MLAs — Dhavalsinh Zala from Bayad, Dharmendrasinh Vaghela from Waghodia and Mavji Desai from Dhanera — in separate but identical letters to Governor Acharya Devvrat on Tuesday announced their support to the BJP, which returned to power by winning a record 156 seats in the House of 182.

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Zala’s letter to newly elected speaker Shankar Chaudhary read, “Inspired by the public-oriented works of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, I am extending my support to the Bharatiya Janata Party.” Both Zala and Vaghela’s letters to the governor said that they were “unconditionally extending support to the BJP government”.

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Desai’s letter also said he was supporting the BJP, inspired by the “public-oriented works” of Modi and Patel. All three were suspended from the BJP.

Zala had claimed a party ticket in the Assembly elections and on being denied it, he contested as an independent and won, even as the BJP suspended him and the other rebels.

Vaghela, too, was a ticket seeker and contested as a rebel candidate from Waghodia seat in Vadodara where the BJP had dropped sitting MLA Madhu Shrivastava to field Ashvin Patel, who was first runner-up. Shrivastava also contested as an independent on being denied a ticket.

Desai who won from the Dhanera seat in Banaskantha district is the chairman of the Deesa Agriculture Produce Market Committee and contested as a rebel and wrested the seat from Congress MLA Nathabhai Patel who was fielded again by the party but ended up in third position.

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