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Gujarat MLA returns to Congress

Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD: In a new twist to the BJP claim that the Congress members of the Gujarat Assembly are keen to cross over to the ruling party, one of the two sitting Congress MLAs, who had joined the party on Tuesday, has returned to the parent organisation.

Mr. Shankar Varli, who was elected to the State Assembly from the Umbergaon constituency in Navsari district of south Gujarat, has announced his decision to stay back in the Congress. Mr. Varli, along with Manish Gilitwala who represent Surat east constituency, had attended a fishermen’s convention organised by the State government at Billimora in Navsari district and were “blessed” by the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, for joining the BJP.

The State unit of the party had promptly issued show cause notices returnable in seven days to both Mr. Gilitwala and Mr. Varli for attending the function and making statements praising the Chief Minister and showing their willingness to join the BJP. Mr. Varli, however, in a statement on Friday claimed that he attended the function because it was an “official function” of the State government but he had no intention to join the BJP.

Confirming Mr. Varli’s willingness to return to the Congress fold, the leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Arjun Modhvadia, said the party would have no problem accepting him back, if he expressed regrets in his reply to the show cause notice. He pointed out that since Mr. Varli had yet not been suspended and only a show cause notice issued to him, there was no question of his “re-joining” the party.

Encouraged by the cross-over by the duo, the BJP State spokesman, Vijay Rupani, had only on Thursday claimed that a “large number” of the sitting Congress MLAs were keen to join the ruling party.

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