Vaghela acquires dormant political party

Expelled Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela's Jan Vikalp, set up as an informal front, has now acquired a dormant political party, All India Hindustan Congress (AIHC), to contest the Gujarat Assembly elections.

The AIHC is a political outfit registered with the Election Commission with a symbol of tractor.

Announcing this on Wednesday, Vaghela said: "This will be a third front alliance contesting against the major parties BJP and Congress. The Jan Vikalp doesn't have the time to get into procedural delays of registering a new party, so we are allying with the AIHC."

He added: "People are fed up with these two parties. Our third front will give them a better option."

Vaghela claimed that many dissatisfied political leaders from other political parties were in talks with him to join the AIHC. He said they include "two to three leaders" from the Aam Admi Party (AAP).

The veteran politician had engineered a split of sorts in the Congress with the resignations of six MLAs and eight others, including his son Mahendrasinh Vaghela, voted against party veteran Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha election in August.

But they could not defeat Patel after votes of two BJP candidates were disqualified.

--IANS

desai/mr/