Bhavnagar/Gandhinagar/Rajkot/Vadodara:

LoP and senior congress MLA Paresh Dhanani today apparently back-tracked and apologized to Gujarat Agriculture Minister R C Faldu for his alleged personal allegation against the minister in groundnut procurement scam.

Dhanani had to apologize following strong stance of Faldu who said that he was not only hurt by the statement of Dhanani who had accused him by name in connection with alleged irregularities in the ground procurement by a cooperative society of Haripar village of Jamnagar where his sister (Faldu’s sister) lived, but was also thinking of taking legal action for his defamation. ‘ I am very hurt with the allegation. It is my personal defamation. Dhanani should prove it,’ he told newsmen in capital Gnadhinagar.

Later, Dhanani who was sitting on Dharana in Bhavnagar told newsman that he did not meant to hurt or defame anyone. ‘I apologize to the Agriculture minister if my statement has hurt him. He is the Agriculture minister of Gujarat and his prestige is in fact the prestige of whole state but his government and he himself was trying all out to cover-up the misdeeds of his predecessor former Agriculture minister Chiman Sapariya,’ he said.

In a statement issued in Rajkot, Sapariya meanwhile also hit back at Dhanani and threw similar challenge at him saying that he either prove his allegations or resign and leave political life. ‘If he proves the allegations I will quit my political life or else he would have to do it,’ Sapariya said.

Meanwhile during a Dharna of Congress on Groundnut issue, police had to detain over 20 party workers for unruly behaviour.

DeshGujarat