Gujarat Congress moves MLAs to hotels after 3 resignations

AHMEDABAD: Social distancing might be the norm world over during Covid-19 pandemic but a desperate Gujarat Congress has packed its flock of 65 MLAs in three resorts and hotels to keep them together ahead of crucial Rajya Sabha polls.
With eight Congress MLAs resigning ever since RS polls were announced - of these three namely Akshay Patel (Karjan), Jitu Chaudhary (Kaprada) and Brijesh Merja (Morbi) resigned in past two days -- the beleaguered party, yet again, packed off its remaining 65 MLAs to three resorts near Ambaji, Rajkot and Vadodara, on Saturday.
Congress leaders confirmed that the 65 MLAs have been housed at Neel City Resort in Rajkot, at Wild Winds Resort in neighbouring Congress-ruled Rajasthan and at Aries Riverside Farmhouse located near Vadodara. Sources in the party said that about 40 MLAs have been housed at Neel City in Rajkot, the remaining have been lodged at the two other locations. Neel City resort is owned by Congress leader Indranil Rajyaguru, who contested against CM Vijay Rupani in the 2017 assembly polls.
2 more likely to resign
The move came amid sources insisting on a strong possibility that two more Congress MLAs, who are disgruntled with the leadership, could tender their resignations before the June 19 RS polls.
Congress spokesperson Jayrajsinh Parmar said that there is no restriction of movement of MLAs out of the resorts, but the step has been taken to ensure that the BJP does not use coercive means to poach Congress MLAs. “There will not be any more defections now. The MLAs will go through training sessions on how the RS election is held and how they will be supposed to cast their votes,” he said.
In Covid pandemic, this is truly a desperate measure as Congress MLAs were seen standing in close proximity of each other, many not even wearing masks.
State BJP president Jitu Vaghani said the Congress’ move to shift its MLAs to safe locations was an internal matter of the party. “Going by the resignations, it is clear that not just the people of Gujarat, but even elected MLAs have lost confidence in the leadership. The Congress does not have the numbers to get two candidates elected, while the BJP is comfortably placed to ensure victory of all its three candidates,” Vaghani said. This is the third time in less than three years and the second time in three months that the Congress has had to move its Gujarat legislators to safe locations in a bid to prevent defections. While the party airlifted its MLAs to a resort in Karnataka before the 2017 Rajya Sabha election which senior party leader Ahmed Patel won by a whisker, earlier this year, in March, the Congress flew its MLAs to Rajasthan in the wake of five MLAs resigning.