Senior Gujarat Congress leader and Porbandar MLA Arjun Modhwadia on March 4 resigned as a lawmaker from the State Assembly and all positions of the party. The former Gujarat Congress president and former leader of opposition, Mr. Modhwadia is likely to join the BJP in next few days.
This is the second setback to the grand old party, as the State unit’s working president Ambarish Der resigned from the party earlier in the day.
Like Mr. Der, in his letter to the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr. Modhwadia cited the party leadership’s decision to decline the invite to attend the Ram Temple consecration ceremony as the reason behind his resignation. He said that the party’s decision “hurt the sentiments of the people of India.
“Congress as a party failed to assess the sentiments of the people,” he added.
Mr. Modhwadia also pointed to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s attempt “to create ruckus in Assam which further angered our party cadres and citizens of Bharat.” On January 22, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, high drama prevailed in Assam when Mr. Gandhi and his supporters were stopped by the police in Nagaon district, on the way to Batadrava Than.
