Gujarat: Several resign in support of BJP MLA Ketan Inamdar

It was followed by the resignation of Baroda Dairy chairman and former MLA BJP 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. 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.”

Even as senior party leaders awaited the arrival of BJP state President Jitu Vaghani to hold talk with Inamdar, who did not arrive in Vadodara until evening, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Dahod said, “Ketan Inamdar is a very important member of our party and family and we will resolve this issue. The Congress party should not interfere in our internal matter as we are all aware how many of their MLAs are sitting ready to resign.”

On the ground, however, senior party leaders said that the issue of Inamdar’s disappointment is more complex than an alleged altercation with Cabinet Minister Saurabh Patel over the non payment of dues of electricity of the Savli Municipality, which led to Gujarat Electricity Board officers coming in to disconnect the power supply at the BJP run local body recently as well as Inamdar’s displeasure over a “sub standard road” connecting Savli to Bhadarva, for which he is seeking reconstruction through representations made to Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.

A senior party leader, who was among the leaders who held a talk with Inamdar on Thursday, said, “There are recent incidents where he has had differences with other leaders including Saurabh Patel over the non payment of GEB dues after a financial problem at the municipality. He did not receive help from Patel, he has said. There are other development projects he has proposed, which have not yet taken off. But the issue at hand also is that Ketan sees himself being sidelined in the government. He knows that his chances for a ministerial berth are slim because it is known that the next leader from here to make it to the cabinet will be someone else. The resignations we are seeing today is a show of strength.”

Inamdar, who along with MLAs Yogesh Patel from Manjalpur and Madhu Shrivastav from Waghodia had alleged that the government had no control over bureaucrats in a late night meeting held at the Vadodara circuit house in June 2018, is known to speak out against the party for various issues. While Patel was made Minister after the circuit house meeting, Shrivastav also got the post of the Chairman of Gujarat Agro Industries Ltd.

Who is Ketan Inamdar?

The 42-year-old BJP MLA is a heavyweight in Savli Taluka of Vadodara District. Much of the BJP’s 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 polls. The party welcomed him back but his aspiration had grown bigger.

Inamdar demanded the 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 party by about 25000 votes. It catapulted him into 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 40000 votes defeating Congress candidate Sagar Koko Brahmabhatt.