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Journalism of Courage
AHMEDABAD, JUNE 27: Senior Congress Working Committee member and former Gujarat chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki, whose son Bharat was summarily expelled from the party along with three others by state PCC chief C.D. Patel on Sunday seems set to take the battle to the central leadership.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Solanki described the expulsion of his son, a sitting MLA, and former ministers K.B. Tirmizi and Navin Shastri as unconstitutional. “How can the PCC chief take action against AICC members when the party constitution clearly lays down that disciplinary action against AICC members can only be taken by the high command?…It’s a clear violation of authority,” he said. Solanki’s son, Trimizi and Shastri are all AICC members, while the fourth partyman Jagdish Thakore is a PCC member.
He also maintained that “the four members do not consider themselves suspended and will attend the convention of party workers in Gandhinagar on Tuesday”.
The four suspended Congressmen also took the same line and today reiterated their resolve to go ahead with a parallel state-level convention planned for tomorrow. Bharat even claimed they had not received any show-cause notice leading to the suspension. “We never received any show-cause notices. Just telegrams this morning informing us about the suspension,” he said. He alleged that the action was aimed to disrupt their convention, and announced that they would decide a course of action after the meeting.
Solanki senior was only recently nominated by the high command to the Congress-RJD Coordination Committee in Bihar, in an apparent bid to assuage his hurt feelings. It is well-known that the senior leader has not taken kindly to the denial of a renomination to the Rajya Sabha by party chief Sonia Gandhi.
His decision to go ahead with the parallel convention tomorrow has now set him on a collision course with the high command, which had asked his group to withhold the meeting.
Quoting former Union minister B.K. Gadhvi, Solanki said the former had on Sunday night called up AICC leader Prabha Rao, in-charge of the Gujarat Congress affairs, to know if C.D. Patel had sought her permission before taking the decision to suspend the four. He claims Rao told Gadhvi that she was not even aware of the GPCC’s action. Solanki says AICC treasurer Ahmed Patel was also never consulted. “Both Rao and Ahmed Patel,” he insists, “believe that the PCC cannot suspend any of the AICC members from Gujarat.”
Solanki also denied the charge by his rivals that he had instigated his supporters to hold the Gandhinagar convention as he had been den-ied a berth in the Rajya Sabha and that he was trying to capture the party organisation in the state. In fact, he gave a clean chit to Ahmed Patel, saying the latter was not responsible for his being denied the Rajya Sabha berth.
Denying the allegation that he was trying to capture the PCC organisation, Solanki asserted: “Had I wanted to lead the party in Gujarat, I could have done on three occasions when Ahmed Patel, Madhavrao Scindia and even Sonia Gandhi had offered me the PCC presidentship."
