Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 5: In a sort of mini-tremor in the BJP in the prime minster Narendra Modi and the union home minister Amit Shah’s home state Gujarat, party’s one of the general secretaries Pradipsinh Vaghela resigned from the party post closely followed by resignation of the party’s Vadodara city general secretary Sunil Solanki.
While Vaghela said he was asked by the party to resign, Solanki claimed that he quit on “personal reasons” and maintained that his resignation following Vaghela’s was merely “co-incidental” and nothing much should be read into it.
The resignation of the two BJP leaders followed sacking in April this year of another state party general secretary Bhargav Bhatt. The reason for relieving Bhatt is not known and the post has still remained vacant. The state BJP had four
general secretaries but after Vaghela’s resignation only two Rajni Patel and Vinod Chavda remained.
The resignation of Solanki – who is also the former mayor of Vadodara – comes close on the heels of the ouster of Alpesh Limbachiya, who was the ruling party leader in the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), following his arrest over the release of defamatory anonymous letters against Mayor Nilesh Rathod in July.
In a statement, the party’s city president Vijay Shah said, “Sunil Solanki has been relieved from the post of general secretary of Vadodara after his resignation was accepted by the party.”
Vaghela who was appointed the general secretary of the state BJP on August 10, 2016, said, “I have resigned as I was asked (to do so) by the party. I do not know the reasons for the same. Today, whatever I am, it is because of the party. And I have done nothing wrong because of which I should be ashamed of myself,” Vaghela said.
Gujarat BJP general secretary Rajni Patel, however, denied that Vaghela was asked by the party to quit and he resigned because of his own “personal reasons.” Patel said “Vaghela’s resignation has been accepted. Vaghela is a dedicated and active worker of the party…He (Vaghela) has voluntarily resigned due to personal reasons. He has said currently he is not comfortable in discharging duties in the party and so has voluntarily resigned for some time,” Patel told the media persons.
“A party worker may resign voluntarily if some situation arises in the party. Similarly, Pradipsinh has resigned. It is completely his personal matter,” Patel said, adding that no complaint had been received against Vaghela, who was also the former president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).
Vaghela was considered the most influential among the four general secretaries in the state party unit and was in charge of the south zone, in addition to Ahmedabad city and district, and the state party headquarter “Shree Kamalam” near Gandhinagar.
The developments followed a recent rebellions in a section of the party in South Gujarat where some party members had levelled graft charges against the state party president CR Paatil, who hails from South Gujarat. Three party workers from south Gujarat were arrested by the Surat Crime Branch police earlier this week for allegedly defaming Paatil by accusing him of corruption over allocation of portfolios to various party leaders. The arrests came following an FIR registered by BJP MLA from Choryasi constituency, Sandeep Desai.
In a similar case last month, one Jinendra Shah was arrested by the Surat Crime Branch for defaming and tarnishing Paatil’s image. Paatil, considered to be a close confidant of Modi when he was the chief minister in Gujarat, was hand-picked by the prime minister to lead the party in home state and managed to bring for the party an all-time record number of 156 seats in the 182-member state Assembly last year.
