Shankersinh Vaghela's son Mahendrasinh quits BJP

Barely three months after he joined the BJP, former Congress MLA Mahendrasinh Vaghela, son of former Gujarat Congress strongman Shankersinh Vaghela, resigned from the ruling party on Thursday.

Mahendrasinh sent his resignation letter to Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani on Thursday.

Without elaborating much about his sudden decision to quit the party, he said in the letter that he was resigning due to some "personal reasons".

Mahendrasinh, who represented Bayad seat in north Gujarat as a Congress MLA, had quit the opposition party last year ahead of the Assembly elections and joined the BJP in July this year. However, he had not contested the 2017 polls.

His move comes days after his father, Shankersinh Vaghela, expressed his desire to play the role of a coordinator between all the regional parties in the country to fight against the ruling BJP during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Last month, Shankersinh had claimed that his supporters have urged him to unite various parties to create an anti-BJP front ahead of the general elections.

In August 2017, Shankersinh along with seven other Congress MLAs, including his son Mahendrasinh, had reportedly cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate during the Rajya Sabha polls and then resigned from the party.

Despite the cross voting, Congress candidate Ahmed Patel had won the election by defeating the BJP's Balwantsinh Rajput.