600 plaints against dejected BJP leaders
For the first time in Gujarat after Narendra Modi’s regime, many state BJP leaders are openly protesting against the party. While many hopefuls had filled out candidature forms, later they were dropped from the BJP’s selection list. Party sources claim that some of these dejected BJP leaders resorted to anti-party activities — like helping out Congress candidates to win in the Assembly polls in December. All of this culminated in party state chief CR Patil receiving a whopping 600 odd complaints against its leaders. Patil has now constituted a disciplinary committee — the first meeting of which will be held on Tuesday.
Ex-MLA’s letter calls out Cong senior leaders
A spark of revolt has been spotted in the Gujarat Congress owing to its debacle in the Assembly polls — and a little-known ex-MLA’s letter has been standing out amid all the chaos. Addressed to almost all city presidents and senior leaders of Gujarat Congress, the leader has blamed the organisation for the defeat while also alleging huge fund irregularities in the elections. Now, the Congress high command has formed a committee to find out the reasons for the defeat in Gujarat — however only after the letter came to spotlight. AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said in a statement, “The committee will submit a report to hon’ble Congress president within two weeks.”
Crowdfunding: Saket Gokhale denied bail
A court in Ahmedabad on January 5 refused bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) party spokesperson Saket Gokhale in a case related to alleged misuse of money collected through crowd-funding. Gokhale was subsequently sent to jail under judicial custody. He was arrested by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch from Delhi on December 30. The FIR was registered on a complaint filed by an Ahmedabad resident who claimed to have donated Rs 500 to Gokhale. However, Gokhale later stated that the complainant was a government employee, and that the FIR was registered due to demean him. The TMC leader was arrested by the Gujarat police thrice in December 2022.
Dilip Singh Kshatriya
Our correspondent in Gujarat
dilipsingh@newindianexpress.com