Ahmedabad Diary

Shankersinh in trouble over son’s next move?
Mahendrasinh Vaghela, a two-time Congress MLA and son of former CM Shankersinh Vaghela was seen with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was on a visit to his home state Gujarat during the ‘Rathyatra.’ The meeting had ushered in rumours of desertion while, earlier, talks were rife that Vaghela senior would join the Congress and renominate son for the Bayad seat in Sabarkantha district. But political analysts believe that this has changed after the meeting with Amit Shah, who maintains that if junior Vaghela joins BJP, then senior will not get to re-enter Congress. The latter has been trying to re-join Congress for some time now. 

Central Gujarat Cong loses more faces to BJP
Congress high-profile exits continued in the state with party district president and former MLA from Kheda, Rajesh Zala and Gautam Chauhan, respectively having quit the party to join the BJP. Moreover, district panchayat member Nagpalsinh Thakor, social worker Arvind Patel, city Congress chief Dilipsinh Chauhan and other central Gujarat senior leaders also made the exit. The leaders were inducted into the saffron party with their supporters swearing scarves and hats in presence of state BJP president C R Patil. Former MLA of Ahmedabad, Gautam Chauhan, who was present at the event, said, “The works which were not done in the whole country for many years are being done very well by Prime Minister Modi.”

CBI books pvt firm for Rd 710-crore bank fraud
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named an Ahmedabad-based private company in a slew of cases relating to a Rs 710.85-crore bank fraud on a complaint from a consortium of national banks. The claim is that the company had lent funds to related parties and others without the approval of consortium banks with an intention to siphon off the funds and deliberately entered into non-genuine transactions to better its credit facilities from the lender banks. The CBI has so far conducted searches at multiple locations related to the company in Ahmedabad and Pune. According to a CBI release, the said company is a leader in the production of starch derivatives.

Dilip Singh Kshatriya
Our correspondent in Gujarat

dilipsingh@ newindianexpress.com