The Hindu : National : Denied ticket, BJP MLA resigns

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Wednesday, Nov 21, 2007
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Denied ticket, BJP MLA resigns

Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD: The Bhartiya Janata Party MLA from Wadhwan in Surendranagar district, Dhanraj Kella, on Tuesday resigned in protest against the party denying him ticket in the coming polls.

Mr. Kella submitted his resignation to the speaker, Mangaldas Patel, in Gandhinagar. He later told the journalists that he was denied the party nomination because he “exposed” a Rs. 20-crore fraud in the Surendranagar people’s co-operative bank controlled by the BJP.

When he brought it to the notice of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Agriculture Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, he was advised to “keep quiet” as it could hurt the interests of the BJP in the elections.

But his insistence on exposing the fraud in the interest of the common people, also the depositors in the bank, cost him the party nomination, he said.

Mr. Kella has already announced his decision to contest as Uma Bharti’s Bharatiya Janshakti Party’s candidate.

Another dropped sitting BJP member from Broach, Ramesh Mistry, accused the party leadership of playing “low-level politics” in denying him re-nomination.

Protest demonstrations were also organised by the supporters of Manish Gilitwala and Shanker Varli, two sitting members from Surat district who were elected on the Congress’ ticket but had crossed over to the BJP last month. Mr. Gilitwala, however, said he and his supporters would work for the BJP in the coming elections.

2,000 workers quit BJP

Meanwhile, about 2,000 tribal workers of the BJP in Pavi-Jetpur in Vadodara district on Tuesday resigned from the party and joined the Congress. They said they quit as the Modi administration had failed to improve the lot of the people in the tribal belt.

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