Vaghela Threatens To Recommend Dissolution Of House

Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela yesterday threatened to recommend dissolution of the assembly if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to topple his government.

He said the BJP leaders had been making efforts in the past few days to dislodge him from power by weaning away some independent MLAs supporting him from outside.

If they (BJP leaders) try to dislodge me from power, I will recommend dissolution of the state assembly, he said when asked about the reported camping by some independent MLAs at Mount Abu in Rajasthan. to create pressure on Vaghela to accommodate them in his ministry.

I am aware that some BJP leaders from Delhi had come down to Ahmedabad and met some independents in a hotel in the city recently. The BJP leaders could not rule the state and they dont like to allow others to rule, he said.

 

Asked how many independents have been camping at Mount Abu, Vaghela said only two to three were there as per his information.

Replying to a question, Vaghela said he had told the 15 independents, most of whom have been supporting his minority government from outside along with 45 Congress MLAs, that he could accommodate them as far as possible.

The Chief Minister said he had even offered two to three ministerial berths to them but all the independents could not be accommodated in the ministry.

arlier, 12 of the 15 independent MLAs in the 182-member Gujarat assembly threatened to withdraw support to the Shankarsinh Vaghela government if they were not inducted into the ministry.

The independent MLAs, including Upendra Gohil, Madhu Srivastava, Bhura Munja, Chhotubhai Vasava, Mahipatsinh Jadeja and Govindbhai Parmaer have rushed to Mount Abu to meet Governor Baliram Bhagat who is presently in charge of Gujarat.

The MLAs, who signed a statement on Tuesday, have decided to make a representation to the Governor, withdrawing their support to the Chief Minister.

However, the whip of the independent MLAs, Usmangani Devdiwala, said the remaining nine MLAs had voted otherwise during a meeting held recently. They were adopting pressure tactics for their personal interest, he added.

Devdiwala, who is leading the independent MLAs group in the state assembly, said the MLAs had discussed the issue at Tuesdays meeting but there was nothing concrete about the withdrawal of support by the independent MLAs group as they had taken a decision to continue with their support to Vaghela.

Devdiwala alleged that some of the MLAs, for their personal interest, were again pressing for a berth in the government, and, therefore a letter written for some other purpose was taken away by MLAs and was being misused. Some

of them had signed the letter, which was not meant for withdrawing support to Vaghela, he said.