Gujarat Congress MLA resigns after ticket denial for LS poll
Ahmedabad: In a setback to the Congress in Gujarat ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, its MLA Kalu Dabhi resigned from the party's primary membership on Thursday after he was denied ticket for the parliamentary election.
However, state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said Dabhi's resignation was not accepted and that efforts would be made to pacify him.
Dabhi wanted to contest the Lok Sabha poll from Kheda constituency, where the Congress has fielded Bimal Shah, a former minister who quit the BJP to join the opposition party in January.
Unhappy over Shah's candidature, Dabhi resigned from the party on Thursday.
He, however, but did not quit as an MLA from his Kapadvanj Assembly seat in Kheda district.
In his resignation letter to state Congress president Amit Chavda, Dabhi said he and his supporters were hurt with the party's decision to field Shah from Kheda, instead of him.
Shah served as transport minister in 1998, when Keshubhai Patel was the state chief minister.
Talking to reporters after resigning, Dabhi blamed Congress heavyweight and former MP Dinsha Patel for denial of ticket to him.
"Since I am already an MLA, I was not keen on contesting the Lok Sabha polls. However, senior party leaders insisted that I should contest from Kheda seat, which has a sizable number of OBC voters. Party leaders told me that being an OBC leader, I can win this seat," Dabhi said.
"But, Dinsha Patel, who played a key role in bringing Shah into the Congress, did not want an OBC candidate and threatened to quitthe party if I was given ticket. Following the pressure, the party denied me the ticket and chose Shah, who belongs to the Jain community," he further said.
Dabhi claimed that though he enjoyed a huge support in Kheda, he was denied ticket "at the behest of Patel".
Meanwhile, Doshi said efforts will be made to placate Dabhi.
"We have not accepted his resignation. He is our senior and respected leader. He is a strong OBC leader from Thakor community. Party leaders will sit with him to sort out all the misunderstandings. We are sure he will withdraw his resignation after the meeting," said Doshi.
The BJP has renominated its sitting MP Devusinh Chauhan for the Kheda Lok Sabha seat.
Polling in all 26 Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat will be held on April 23 and the results will be declared on May 23.
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Shivakumar hosts gala dinner to mark 6 years as Karnataka Congress chief
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Tuesday threw a dinner party at a five-star hotel in the city to celebrate the completion of six years as the Congress state president.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his cabinet colleagues and many MLAs attended the dinner party.
As Shivakumar welcomed the CM on his arrival, the latter greeted him with a bouquet and congratulated him for completing six years as the KPCC president.
Shivakumar was appointed as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president on March 11, 2020.
He assumed the charge when the state unit was running into rough weather.
The party had lost the assembly election after five years of Congress rule from 2013 to 2018. In the face of a hung assembly, it formed a coalition government with Janata Dal (Secular), led by its ally’s second-in-command H D Kumaraswamy.
The government lasted only for a year from May 2018 to June 2019. After the fall of the coalition government, BJP led by B S Yediyurappa came to power.
Following the drubbing in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao had resigned as the leader of the Congress Legislative Party and Congress state president respectively.
Displaying his organisational skills, Shivakumar raised the party cadres. The Congress under his leadership defeated the ruling BJP with a thumping majority in 2023 assembly election by winning 134 seats in 224-member House.
Presently, the Congress government has a strength of 140 MLAs, including the support of independents.
The Congress also managed to raise its number from just one seat from Karnataka in 2019 Lok Sabha election to nine MPs in 2024.
There has been a power tussle going on between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar. However, the two leaders often put up a united face.
