Gandhinagar: Former Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela today tendered his resignation from the post of the Member of Legislative Assembly(MLA).

Vaghela submitted his resignation at 5.00 pm to Assembly Speaker Ramanlal Vora.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, Senior Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Minister of State Pradipsinh Jadeja among others were specially present on this occasion in Speaker’s chamber.

Vaghela had announced his resignation from Congress party last month on his birthday.

Vaghela has time and again clarified that he is neither going to retire from the politics, nor going to join any political party.

In reply to media’s query regarding his presence, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said: when a senior person like Shri Shankersinh Vaghela steps down as member of legislative assembly, courtesy demands that we should remain present. As soon as we learnt about this, we came to Speaker’s chamber.

Rupani further said: honorable Shankersinh Bapu, a senior leader who resigned from the assembly today, has been active for many years. Shankersinh Bapu has worked for Jan Sangh and he is our elder. He has left Congress first and later has resigned as MLA. This indicates that he is not with Congress. This is major loss to Congress.

Replying media queries, Shankersinh said: I have discussed with the people of my Kapadvanj constituency about my resignation in detail. They should not know about my this move through media, therefore I consulted them. The Speaker gave me time and there was a cabinet meeting today here, therefore the Speaker might have informed the Chief Minister about my scheduled visit to tender resignation. I am thankful to Chief Minister Rupani, Deputy CM Nitinbhai, Ministers Bhupendrasinh and Pradipsinh who were present. There were there for courtesy.

Shankersinh clarified again that he is not going to join any political party be it BJP, Congress, NCP or AAP. He also clarified that he is not going to form any new political party.

Shankersinh said he is not active in any political party but he is very much active in politics.

“My role will be pro-people. I will work for GDP of Gujarat, and GDP means Growth, Development and Progress(GDP) of Gujarat, till the time I am physically and mentally fit,” Vaghela further clarified.

It should be mentioned that 6 Congress MLAs who are believed Vaghela supporters have resigned from the post of MLA last month. 8 more MLAs including Shankersinh’s MLA son Mahendrasinh left Congress party recently and submitted their resignations recently.

DeshGujarat