Angry protests over tickets, Gujarat Congress HQ again turns in to police camp of sorts

Ahmedabad:

The Congress state headquarter in Paldi area here today again looked like a police camp amid chaotic scene and confusion over tickets a day before the last day for nomination tomorrow.

Over three dozen policemen and officials were seen deployed near the main gate and close-by of the Rajiv Gandhi bhavan which had also seen such situation a few days ago when the PAAS leader and Hardik Patel’s close aide Dinesh Bambhaniya had expressed his anger soon after the announcement of the first list of candidates.

Protestors this time around are the party men who were confused and angry over the ticket issue. The party attitude had added to it further.

Instead of issuing a list of candidate it has now adopted the ‘secret’ telephonic intimation way to inform the candidates about the confirmation of tickets that too just a day before the last day of nomination for the second and final phase of the election.

Party spokesperson Manish Doshi in a seemingly lame-duck excuse told newsmen that the candidates were intimated over phone owing to Sunday being a holiday.

However, learning about such intimations rebellion of sorts erupted in many areas including Nikol segment of the city where Rahul Gandhi had a public meeting two days back. Local congress activists and ticket aspirants claimed that the ticket has been given to an outsider and imported candidate. Such protests were witnessed for many other seats including Radhanpur of Patan where Alpesh Thakor was said to have been given the ticket..

A protestor near the congress headquarter here said that he was so sorry to see the state of things. ‘There was no prominent office bearer at the office at such a crucial time to hear grievances and at least console them. We have also learnt that the mandate was being distributed from some private place secretly. The party which was out of power for over two decades can’t expect to perform better by behaving in such a manner and that too with its own cadres,’ he said.

DeshGujarat