UDAIPUR: Dungarpur Congress MLA and Rajasthan Youth Congress state president Ganesh Ghogra resigned from the legislative assembly on Wednesday a day after an FIR was registered against him and 60 others for allegedly taking the local SDM and 22 other government employees hostage in Surpur gram panchayat of Dungarpur district.
In a letter to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, he accused the state government of ignoring him and creating pressure through the administration to stop raising people's voice.
The government officials had come to the panchayat to hold a review of the 'Prashashan Gaon Ke Sangh' (PGKS) campaign on Tuesday. They were locked in the panchayat building by angry villagers whose issues remained unresolved during the campaign. Ghogra staged a dharna outside the panchayat building after the incident. A case was filed against Ghogra by Dungarpur tehsildar for illegal activities and taking government officials hostage. The MLA claimed he did not take the government employees hostage but the villagers did.
"I just sat on dharna outside the building in support of the people," Ghogra told reporters on Wednesday.
The villagers took the government officers hostage, accusing them of not allotting land lease deeds during the PGKS campaign after citing reasons that the papers were not signed by the MLA.
Govt officials never listened to me: MLA
MLA Ghogra first got into the limelight during the rebellion by Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress legislators in July-August 2020.
For the rebellion, Pilot's supporter Mukesh Bhakar was sacked as the Rajasthan Youth Congress state president and replaced by Ghogra, a tribal leader from south Rajasthan.
Ghogra alleged that despite being an active MLA of the ruling party, the officials never listened to him while raising public issues.
"I have always been raising the voice of the people, but government officials have always been exerting pressure on me (to stop doing so)," he said.
