Shankersinh Vaghela removed from Nationalist Congress Party’s Gujarat unit president post. (File)

Days after Sharad Pawar’s NCP removed him from the post of president of its Gujarat unit, veteran leader Shankersinh Vaghela has said that he will field his own contestants in the upcoming local bodies polls and assembly bypolls. Vaghela was removed from the post of NCP’s Gujarat unit chief on Wednesday, just before the Rajya Sabha elections. The party appointed former Umreth MLC Jayant Patel as its new chief.

Vaghela’s removal was believed to have triggered over differences between him and the party leadership over lone NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja’s support in the Rajya Sabha polls on June 19.

Addressing the media on Thursday, Vaghela said that he cannot stay in a party where match-fixing happens and vowed to put up his own contestants without the support of the NCP, BJP and Congress in the municipality, zilla panchayat polls and also on the Vidhan Sabha by-elections.

Vaghela said this while referring to the NCP’s alliance with the Congress. The NCP MLA is likely to vote in the favour of Congress in the Rajya Sabha polls.

Vaghela also said that he was not informed of his ouster as NCP Gujarat president by the party’s high command. When asked about whether he will put in his resignation from the party, he said, “A decision will be taken soon in the matter.”

“I will contest taluka and zilla panchayat, municipality and by-elections for vacant seats in Gujarat Vidhan Sabha without the support of NCP, Congress or BJP. I will declare candidates and fight elections on the basis of unemployment, prohibition issue, farmers’ issues, denotification of land in Kevadia among others…” the former Gujarat CM said.

Vaghela also said that NCP executive chairman Babal Patel has offered his resignation to him to “pass it on to NCP president Sharad Pawar, along with a message by over 12,000 workers in Gujarat”.

“Over 12,000 workers of NCP in Gujarat have written a letter to convey their feelings and Babal Patel has urged me to hand it over to Pawar sahib. These workers have authorised me to take any decision for their welfare. In the coming days, I will meet two senior leaders in Gujarat and then take a decision,” he said.

Vaghela (79) served as the CM of Gujarat for one year (October 1996 to October 1997). He was then in the BJP. The politician had broken away from the BJP in 1996 and in 2017 and walked out of Congress weeks ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls. Vaghela joined the Nationalist Congress Party in January 2019.