Gujarat Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said he would file criminal and civil defamation suits against Chief Minister Vijay Rupani for stating that the opposition party's Bihar in-charge was responsible for the recent attacks on Hindi-speaking migrants in the state.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani
Ahmedabad:
Gohil is in charge of the Congress party's affairs in Bihar.
Several districts in the northern parts of Gujarat were rocked by violence after a labourer from Bihar was arrested on the charge of raping a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district on September 28.
It led to the exodus of thousands of migrants from the state.
Speaking to reporters in Lucknow Monday, Rupani, without mentioning anyone by name, had said the Congress party's Bihar in-charge was responsible for the violence, adding that over 50 of those arrested in this connection were Congress workers.
Incidentally, Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor is the party's Bihar in-charge secretary.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has, on several occasions, blamed Thakor and his outfit, the Kshatriya Thakor Sena, for the violence. BJP leaders have also pointed out that several FIRs lodged by the Gujarat police in connection with the violence mentioned Thakor's outfit.
Thakor has consistently refuted the allegations, claiming that the cases lodged against the youth of the Thakor community were false.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Gohil said, "I will file civil and criminal defamation suits against the Gujarat chief minister for his statement that the Congress's Bihar in-charge was responsible for violence against migrants in our state.
"I will first send him a legal notice tomorrow and give him two weeks' time to clarify. If he fails to apologise, I will approach the court."
Asked if Rupani had referred to Thakor and not him, Gohil said the Congress appointed only one "in-charge" for a state and all others were designated as "secretaries".
"I hope the Gujarat chief minister has this basic knowledge. If he was not speaking about me, he should clarify. Many newspapers today have reported that the chief minister is saying that I am responsible for the violence. So I have decided to take legal action," he added.
The Congress leader said he was undecided on an amount to claim as part of his defamation suits, adding that it could even be Re I as the intention was to punish Rupani.
Gohil accused the Gujarat government of "bias" in the investigations into the anti-migrant violence and claimed that it was the BJP's plan to defame the Congress ahead of the Assembly polls in the five states of Rajasthan, Telangana, Chhattishgar, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram, scheduled to be held in November-December.