Vote for BJP rather than their ‘B team’ AAP: Cong MLA Vasoya

Addressing an election meeting organised at Jamnavad Road in Dhoraji town as part of the Congress’s ongoing Parivartan Sankalp Yatra, Vasoya said the BJP doesn’t have the capacity to defeat the Congress in the Dhoraji seat in a direct fight and therefore, it has sent its B team in the form of AAP to eat into the Congress vote-share. “The Bharatiya Janata Party does not have the capacity to defeat Congress in Dhoraji-Upleta. Therefore, friends, the BJP has brought along its ‘B’ team, the Aam Aadmi Party to fight this election,” he said.

He drew parallels between the BJP and AAP with Ravana impersonating as a Brahmin to cheat Sita into crossing the Lakshmanrekha in an attempt to abduct her. “(Similarly,) the BJP is not capable of defeating (the Congress). Therefore, it has brought AAP (like Ravana) draped in clothes of a Brahmin and is talking about the poor, 300 units free electricity, etc,” said the Congress MLA.

However, he later said his words were taken out of context. “They are playing just a few frames of my speech and quoting me out of context. If you listen to my entire speech, you would realise that I meant to target the AAP. So far as my appeal to vote for BJP goes, why would I, the sitting MLA of Congress, ask to vote for BJP,” he told The Indian Express.

Vasoya, who was the Saurashtra convener of the Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), was once an aide to late Vitthal Radadiya who had stints with both the Congress and the BJP. However, while Radadiya switched over to the BJP from the Congress in 2012, Vasoya joined the Congress in 2017 and emerged victorious in the general election to the seat by defeating former MP Haribhai Patel.