Junagadh: Along with Lok Sabha elections, Gujarat also witnessed by-polls for five assembly seats. One of these seats is Manavdar where BJP fielded Arvind Ladani who had resigned as Congress MLA on this seat earlier and joined BJP. Ladani has now in a letter stated how former BJP MLA Jawahar Chavda worked against him in favor of Congress during the by-election.

Ladani said Jawahar Chavda through his son and wife called a meeting on 4-5 May at Nutan Cotton Factory in the presence of around 800 cadres and issued an appeal for voting for a Congress candidate. Such an appeal was made by Jawahar Chavda’s son Rajbhai. On 6th May, a business community gathering was called over a meal and Raj Chavda appealed for a vote in favor of Congress again.

Ladani further stated that on polling day 7th of May, Raj Chavda toured the villages of Manavdar, Vanthli, and Mendarda talukas and appealed to villagers to vote for Congress. Mendarda taluka Congress chief Dhirubhai Kumbhani accompanied him.

Ladani has said in his letter that he saw Raj Chavda in five villages near polling booths in Mendarda taluka. Ladani has also stated that Manavdar taluka BJP chief Govind Savsani, Manavdar Taluka BJP general secretary Jagdish Maru, Junagadh district panchayat child development committee chairman Rinaben Maradiya’s father-in-law Jivabhai Maradiya and Manavdar town BJP general secretary Vikramsinh Chavda also openly worked against BJP in Manavdar assembly by-poll.

Ladani has addressed this later to Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil, general secretary (organization) Ratnakar Pandey, and Junagadh district BJP chief Kiritbhai Patel.

It’s worth noting that in the 2022 assembly elections in Gujarat, Ladani as a Congress candidate defeated Chavda who was a BJP candidate. Ladani recently left Congress and also resigned as MLA. He joined the BJP and got a party ticket to contest the by-election. Like Ladani, Chavda also joined the BJP after leaving the Congress party. Chavda was also made minister after he left Congress.  DeshGujarat