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Gujarat: Congress loses 7 MLAs as four more resign ahead of Rajya Sabha election

Fresh jolt to the Congress party in Gujarat.

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Gujarat Congress MLA Ramsinh Parmar submitting his resignation.
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In another jolt to the Congress party in Gujarat, four more MLAs resigned on Friday, ahead of the Rajya Sabha election, taking the number to seven.

Congress MLAs Mansinh Chouhan and Chhanabhai Chaudhary handed over their resignation to the assembly speaker.

Chouhan was Transport Minister during Congress rule in state during 1990 to 1995.

Later in the noon, Godhra MLA CK Rauli and Ramsinh Parmar​, MLA from Thasra and Chairman of Amul Dairy in Kheda, too resigned.

The desertion of MLAs from the Congress Legislature Party is worrying for the party which has fielded its senior leader Ahmed Patel for the Upper House election, slated on August 8.

The Congress's tally has now reduced to 50 in the 182-seat assembly.

On Thursday, three party MLAs considered close to Shankarsinh Vaghela quit and joined the BJP, which quickly declared one of them its candidate for next month's Rajya Sabha polls against Congress veteran Ahmed Patel.

The resignation of Balwantsinh Rajput, the party's chief whip in the Assembly, Tejashreeben Patel and Prahlad Patel reduced

Rajput, Tejashreeben Patel and Prahlad Patel resigned from the House and also all party posts. They later drove to the BJP office in Gandhinagar and joined the saffron party in the presence of its president Amit Shah.

The Congress has re-nominated Ahmed Patel, political secretary to party president Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress nominee can sail through if he musters the support of 47 MLAs and the party is able to further desertions from its legislative arm. Congress, the main opposition party in the Gujarat Assembly, also has the support of two NCP legislators and the lone JD(U) MLA.

The presidential election had seen cross-voting by Congress MLAs as the joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar could garner votes of only 49 legislators against the party's then strength of 57 in the Assembly.

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