The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received a severe jolt before the assembly elections in Gujarat on Saturday when a former state minister Jay Narayan Vyas who was associated with the organisation for more than 30 years resigned from the party.
He told reporters that he had dashed off the resignation letter to state party president CR Paatil on Friday. Paatil said that he had received the resignation letter that the party accepted.
Paatil said that the party gave him tickets many times, although he had repeatedly lost elections. The party has a rule that it will not give tickets to those who have crossed 75 years, Paatil further said.
Vyas, however, said that he was unhappy about the functioning of the party’s district committee in Patan. He announced that he would contest the upcoming assembly elections, but did not mention the party whose support he would take to contest the polls. Vays, however, confirmed that he would not contest as an independent candidate.
The 75-year-old former minister recently met the Congress leader and party’s former president Sonia Gandhi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot last week, a senior Congress leader said. Gehlot is the Congress’s senior observer for Gujarat elections.
