Vadodara: BJP MLA Ketan Inamdar withdraws resignation

According to Vaghani and Inamdar, who jointly addressed reporters after the meeting, the discussion was fruitful and “all of his grievances” had been resolved. Vaghani said that the trigger for Inamdar’s resignation came after the Managing Director of Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) “did not appropriately respond” to Inamdar’s request to not disconnect the electricity supply to the Savli Municipality due to the outstanding bill of Rs 46 lakh. Vaghani said, “We have assured that it will be taken care of. The issue of the pending dues of the municipality will be resolved shortly.”

Inamdar also expressed his happiness at his long-standing demand of having an ESI hospital in Savli being accepted. He said, “Since Manjusar area in my constituency has many factories, a lot of workers work and also live there. It would be of great help to have an ESI hospital there. I am glad it will be constructed now. I am taking back my resignation as I don’t have any other demands.”

Earlier during the day, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani too had expressed confidence that Inamdar would reconsider his decision.

“Inamdar is a very important member of our party and family and we will resolve this issue. The Congress should not interfere in our internal matter as we are all aware how many of their MLAs are sitting ready to resign.”

Even as Inamdar withdrew his resignation in the evening, earlier in the day, several members of the Savli Municipality as well as Savli Taluka Panchayat resigned along with other office bearers of the party to “back the BJP MLA”.

While 23 members of the Savli Municipality, including president KH Seth and vice-president Khyati Patel, submitted their resignation to the Chief Officer of the Municipality Deepak Vyas, 17 members of the Taluka Panchayat in Savli also did the same.

It was followed by the resignation of Baroda Dairy chairman and former BJP MLA of Padra, Dinesh Patel (Dinu Mama) and over a dozen directors of APMC from Savli and Desar. Members of the Savli and Desar units of the party have also submitted their resignations. It is not yet clear if their resignations have been accepted or not.

Seth, who spoke to reporters while handing over the signed resignations of the 23 members, including three independent members who had joined BJP after their win in 2015, said, “We are resigning in support of our leader and MLA Ketan Inamdar, whose demands from the government are genuine. We know how many things here are wrong and how we are all being treated despite being elected representatives. His demand is totally justified and we are all with him in this fight of principles.”

Who is Ketan Inamdar?

The 42-year-old BJP MLA is a heavyweight in Savli Taluka of Vadodara district. Much of the BJPs success in the area stands on the popularity of Inamdar, who has been an active leader with or without the party. Inamdar, whose political career kicked off as an independent candidate of the gram panchayat, first contested the 2005 district panchayat polls on a BJP ticket but lost. He parted ways with the party after a showdown with local leaders that earned him the tag of being undisciplined but was back in the fold in 2009 in hope of a ticket to the 2010 district panchayat polls.

However, when the party sidelined him, he quit again to contest as an independent and won. The party welcomed him back. Inamdar demanded assembly ticket in the 2012 polls but the party did not consider his candidature. Once again, Inamdar quit the party and contested the 2012 Gujarat Assembly polls as an independent and won by a huge margin defeating sitting MLA Khumansinh Chauhan of the Congress by about 25,000 votes. It catapulted him to a leader of strength in the area.

Inamdar, in 2012, was the only independent candidate in the state to have won the constituency. He won the 2017 Assembly polls on a BJP ticket with a margin of close to 40,000 votes defeating Congress candidate Sagar Koko Brahmabhatt.