Gandhinagar: Three independent legislators elected to the State Assembly of Gujarat have declared their support to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). All three were previously associated with the BJP. They had contested as BJP candidates after the denial of tickets to them by the party. The three MLAs today met with the Governor of Gujarat Acharya Devvrat and declared their support to BJP.

The MLAs are Dhavalsinh Jhala (Thakor) from Bayad, Dharmendrasinhji from Waghodia and Mavji Desai from Dhanera.

Yesterday, Dhavalsinh Jhala, an independent who won from the Bayad seat in North Gujarat had conveyed to the media persons that the independents would need the Government’s support for pro-people work in their constituencies and it makes sense that they are on the same page with the ruling party. Dhavalsinh had also added that all three independents were previously with BJP under the leadership of State party chief CR Patil. Dhavalsinh is aide of BJP MLA Alpesh Thakor. Alpesh and Dhavalsinh were elected as MLAs from the Congress party in the year 2017 regular elections of the State assembly. They joined BJP in the year 2019 after the Lok Sabha polls and recontested as BJP candidates but lost. Dhavalsinh’s margin of defeat was less than 1,000. He had sought a ticket to contest from Bayad again as a BJP candidate, but the party denied him the ticket. Dhavalsinh contested on his own and won the election apparently with the huge support of Thakor community voters.

While Dhanera MLA Mavjibhai Desai won the seat with a 35,696 margin over rival BJP candidate Bhavanbhai Patel, the Bayad MLA Dhavalsinh Jhala won the seat with 5,818 margin over BJP candidate Bhikhiben Parmar. Dhavalsinh also defeated former Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela’s son Mahendrasinh Vaghela, a Congress candidate by a margin of over 37,000 votes. Vaghodia MLA Dharmendrasinh Vaghela (Bapu) won the seat with a margin of over 14,000 votes against rival BJP candidate Ashvinbhai Patel.

With this, the effective strength of ruling BJP in the 182-seat State assembly shall be 159.
As Kutiyana MLA Kandhal Jadeja conventionally favors BJP at the time of Rajya Sabha polls or Presidential elections, the support for BJP in the State Assembly is now about 160. DeshGujarat