Gujarat MLA Asha Patel quits Congress, lauds PM Narendra Modi

In what may prove to be an upset for Gujarat Congress in the upcoming general elections, its sitting legislator from Unjha, Asha Patel, resigned from the state assembly as well as all party positions, citing issues with the party’s leadership.

On Saturday, Patel tendered her resignation from the post of Congress MLA to Gujarat assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi, and from the Congress to party chief Rahul Gandhi, expressing her dismay with party organisation.

In her letter to Gandhi, she criticised Gandhi’s leadership for its failures on many fronts, while praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his government’s move of providing 10 per cent reservation to the poor in the general category.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhinagar Circuit House, she said she felt “suffocated and insulted” in Congress as it entirely ignored the issues she had raised. 

“My respect was never maintained in the Congress. The public issues I put before the state leadership were not paid any heed. Rahul Gandhi may be a good person, but he and others down the chain of command failed to understand the people’s sentiments. There was lack of coordination between party organisation and elected representatives,” Patel said at the press meeting.  

“The state-level leaders would always suppress the elected members for their own interest,” Patel said. 

Asha Patel had assumed charge as a Congress lawmaker in December 2017, after defeating five-time BJP MLA and former minister Narayan Patel, leaving his party blushing, especially since PM Modi’s hometown, Vadnagar, falls in the same constituency.

A PhD, she was considered a good speaker and would target the ruling BJP during assembly sessions, especially on issues of women and education. 

She belongs to a region which has the temple of the local Kadva Patel community’s deity — Umiya Mata.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said Patel’s resignation indicated the failing leadership of Rahul Gandhi, while Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda blamed the BJP for luring and intimidating Congress MLAs to defect to the other side.