Senior leader and former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela resigned on Monday from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
In a video message after his resignation, he expressed his displeasure at party MLA Kandhal Jadeja cross-voting in the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls for four seats. “Lone NCP MLA’s act of defying the party whip to vote for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls has disappointed me,” he said.
The NCP has issued a show cause notice to Mr. Jadeja for defying party whip to vote for the Congress.
Mr. Vaghela, in his letter to Sharad Pawar, said he had been unhappy with the NCP since his removal as president of the Gujarat unit a week before the Rajya Sabha elections.
He was replaced by Jayant Patel, his predecessor in the party.
The 79-year-old veteran said he would honour the wish of his supporters, and remain active in public life.
Mr. Vaghela had been with the BJP since the Jan Sangh days and became the Chief Minister after splitting the party in Gujarat in 1996. In 1997, he merged his party with the Congress and became its State chief. He was Union Minister in UPA I and Leader of the Opposition in the State assembly from 2012 to 2017.
He quit the Congress after engineering a defection in the party ranks ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls in 2017. He joined the NCP in 2019.
