Congress MLAs Alpesh Thakor, Dhavalsinh Zala resign from Gujarat Assembly

Read | Gujarat: Voting underway for bypolls to two Rajya Sabha seats

A total of five MLAs — from the Congress, the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — voted for the BJP.
Meanwhile, Thakor and Zala, after casting their votes, rushed to the chamber of the Speaker of Gujarat Assembly Rajendra Trivedi and tendered their resignations. Both MLAs expressed their grievances against the Congress though they did not say if they would join the BJP in the near future.

The Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Paresh Dhanani, immediately moved an application seeking the disqualification of Thakor and Zala for disobeying the Congress party’s whip.

Gujarat RajyaSabhaPolls: Congress MLAs Alpesh Thakor and Dhavalsinh Zala resign from Gujarat Assembly after voting against Congress candidates. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/btQ45wT9oo

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“At the time of our submission of the application, the Speaker told us that he has already accepted resignations of Alpesh and Dhaval, so he cannot pass any order on the application. Though, no formal order was passed on our application. We will approach Gujarat High Court, if our application (against Alpesh and Dhaval) is not allowed,” Dhanani said.

With the two resignations, Congress’s strength in the Gujarat Assembly has been reduced to 69.

Thakor represented the Radhanpur constituency of Patan district and Zala was the MLA of Bayad constituency of Aravalli district. Both Thakor and Zala belong to (Other Backward Classes) OBC communities.

The Gujarat Assembly will now have eight vacancies in total, of which, five seats belonged to the BJP, two to the Congress and one to an Independent. Three of these MLAs had been disqualified, while four from the BJP were elected to the Lok Sabha and have resigned from the State Assembly.

The Rajya Sabha bypolls were necessitated as the seats were vacated by BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani, who represented Gujarat in the upper house, after they were elected to the Lok Sabha.

“We were being betrayed by the Congress party all the time – ever since we joined it,” Thakor told media persons. “I did that (joined the party) trusting (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi ji. It is unfortunate that he could not do anything. I see the failure of national leadership in whatever has happened.”

Thakor denied making any quid pro quo deal with the BJP, and claimed that he was not enticed by anything but that people were free to come to any conclusion. “My only interest is my community and the poor people whom I want to serve,” he said.
There are 11 Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat. Of these, two fell vacant after the Lok Sabha elections. Five of the sitting MPs are from the BJP, while four are from the Congress. After Friday’s victory the total number of BJP MPs in Rajya Sabha from Gujarat will continue to remain seven.