Ladani had defeated another Congress turncoat and former Gujarat Minister Jawahar Chavda in Manavadar constituency in Junagarh district in 2022 assembly election. With his resignation, Congress’s strength in state assembly stands reduced at 13 out of 182 seats.
Sources maintain that several other Congress leaders are expected to jump ship over the next few days. Ladani, for the records happens to be the second sitting Congress MLA to have resigned in last three days. On Monday veteran Congress leader and former Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President and sitting MLA from Porbandar, Arjun Modvadia had tendered his resignation.
BJP sources oozed confidence that the strength of Congress in Gujarat assembly would soon be reduced in single digit.
While Congress has been appearing almost helpless on the face of this outflow of legislators and even unelected leaders, party sources maintain that the leadership both at the state and centre level have been aware of the defections much before they are actually fructifying on ground.
Sources requesting anonymity maintained that while Rahul Gandhi’s yatra was initially scheduled to visit Porbandar, the birthplace of Mohandas Gandhi, the plan had to be dropped after the high command learnt about possible defection of Arjun Modvadia.Speaking to ET, a midlevel Congress worker lamented that while this exodus has been going on for a long time, the leadership of the party has done precious little to stem the tide. “Surprisingly, there has been no effort on the part of the leadership to stop people from leaving the party. It is as if the party has altogether given up on Gujarat,” said the functionary.BJP is also working on erasing Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) off Gujarat political landscape ahead of Lok Sabha polls. BTP, essentially run by Bharuch based Chhotu Vasava and his son Mahesh Vasava had faced a total washout in 2022 assembly polls after a rift was engineered between the duo. On Wednesday, Mahesh Vasava confirmed to ET that he will be joining BJP on March 11 and will take a call on merging the party with BJP after discussing it with his workers.
Vasava’s move is expected to give BJP some succour in Bharuch constituency where AAP has fielded its Dediapada MLA Chaitar Vasava as the Lok Sabha candidate.