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Gujarat: Congress MLA from Unjha resigns from party, state assembly; many may follow suit

Patel is a first time MLA and had turned out to be a giant killer after she defeated seven-time legislator Narayan Patel in Unjha, a constituency also covering PM Modi's hometown Vadnagar.

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Dr Asha Patel submitting her resignation to assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi
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In a major setback to Congress in Gujarat ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Dr Asha Patel, a woman MLA from Mehsana district's Unjha constituency, resigned from the party and state Assembly on Saturday. 

Patel is a first time MLA and had turned out to be a giant killer after she defeated seven-time legislator and former minister Narayan Patel  in assembly elections held in December 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hometown Vadnagar also falls under the Unjha constituency and BJP's loss on the seat was a huge embarrassment for the party. 

In her resignation letter addressed to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Patel said that his leadership has failed and claimed that the party is only doing vote bank politics and dividing people on the caste lines. Full text of his resignation letter to Rahul Gandhi here.

She also hailed Modi government's initiative to provide 10% quota for poor from the general category. 

Dr Patel, a PhD, was considered a good speaker and would target the ruling party BJP in her speech in the house during assembly sessions, especially on issues of women and education. 

Talking to mediapersons at her MLA quarters in Gandhinagar, she said, "I was feeling suffocated in the Congress and nothing is well in the party. I am not joining the BJP and have not decided the future course of action yet. I will make an announcement soon." 

After submitting her resignation to Gujarat assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi, Dr Patel remained in the house and left for somewhere at around 12 noon.

Sources said she had recently met Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and decided to leave the Congress. Besides her, there are half a dozen Congress MLAs who had held meetings with Rupani

Alpesh Thakor, Congress MLA from Radhanpur, Bayad MLA Dhavalsinh Zala and Bechraji MLA Bharat Thakor were among those who met the Chief Minister earlier this week.

Commenting on her resignation, BJP chief Jitu Vaghani said, "This is the result of internal clash in the Congress. This is proof that Rahul Gandhi is not capable of managing his party affairs. How he can imagine to handle the nation as he failed on many fronts."

Congress's senior MLA Dr CJ Chavda held this as the destructive mindset of BJP and said that people who wished to defect to BJP should remember that the Congress leaders who joined BJP in past have been sidelined there.

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