Election Watch | And now from Gujarat corner: Youth Cong chief leaves, joins BJP, attacks Rahul, ‘bhakti for family’

For the Congress, Vaghela’s resignation after 18 years in the party was a double whammy because he was chosen for the Youth Congress post via an election that was once touted as Rahul’s bold initiative to kickstart democracy within the party.

In his six-page resignation letter, Vaghela decried the factionalism in the Congress and said: “Rahulji when you introduced elections to the NSUI and Youth Congress, it gave hope to lakhs of youths like me but, because of very expensive elections, we are losing respect for you… Only those who are rich and sons of leaders can work well in the Congress party.”

With Vaghela known as a confidant of Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who earlier joined the BJP similarly expressing disappointment with the Congress, the party was resigned to his exit. However, the timing left it red-faced: not only did Vaghela do so just before Rahul arrived for his first visit since May in the poll-bound state but also a day after he participated in a raucous Youth Congress protest outside the Adani Group’s office in Ahmedabad over drug seizures at the Adani port.

Dismissing Vaghela’s claims, Parthivrajsinh Kathvadia, former national spokesperson of the Indian Youth Congress and its training coordinator, said: “What transpired in these eight months that Vaghela, who had worked for 18 years with the party and held senior positions, the same party which supported the son of a police constable, is now blaming the party and Rahul Gandhi?”

Youth Congress leaders said the “over-ambitious” Vaghela had been meeting senior BJP leaders for some time, and had tried to join the party at least thrice.

The Congress immediately announced Youth Congress national secretary Harpalsinh Chudasama as Vaghela’s successor.

An MSc degree holder, Vaghela started his political career with student politics in 2008 at Gujarat University, Ahmedabad. In 2010, he won the NSUI Ahmedabad city president election, and then the NSUI national delegate election in 2013.

In his resignation letter, he alleged that the 2010 and 2013 NSUI elections had cost him Rs 25 lakh, while he had spent Rs 1.7 crore on the 2016 and 2021 Youth Congress polls, adding that he only got picked because he gave this money to the party.

“How can I respect a party where I had to buy positions? I was tolerating all the weaknesses of the party, but now my tolerance limit is over,” he wrote.

Vaghela added that what the Congress required of its leaders was “bhakti of one family”, asking the party to ponder why, after the election system introduced by Rahul, “thousands of youths in Gujarat and lakhs from across the nation” that had joined it, had quit. “But that shall not affect you as the pain of such youth never reaches you as you are surrounded by sycophants… Even after working for 18 years in the party, I have not been able to know who your advisors are,” he wrote, quoting Ghulam Nabi Azad in saying that the party needed not a Bharat Jodo Yatra but a Congress Jodo Yatra.

Vaghela further complained that on May 21 and August 20, the death and birth anniversaries of late Rajiv Gandhi, Youth Congress leaders had “spent lakhs” and reached Delhi, but Rahul did not turn up “even for two minutes”.

With Vaghela’s resignation and attack coming as another blow for the party, Youth Congress leaders pointed out that Vaghela did not react or give any statement when Hardik had joined the BJP, and had been “forced” to address a press conference on the matter.

Kathvadia said: “This has become a modus operandus now, that leave the Congress and then defame Rahul Gandhi. Which party does not have differences of opinion? In the BJP, Amit Shah and Anandiben Patel have differences, in AAP, Kumar Vishwas and Arvind Kejriwal have them. It is only in the Congress party that you have the freedom to express your difference of opinion, and that is respected. The party that gave opportunities to the son of a police constable is now accusing the Congress. This shows his character.”