AHMEDABAD: In a jolt to the Congress a day before it holds its Working Committee meeting, its Jamnagar (Rural) MLA Vallabh Dharaviya quit the party and tendered his resignation from the Assembly to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi on Monday. Dharaviya's is the third resignation of a Congress MLA in the past four days. Last week, four-time legislator from Manavadar, Jawahar Chavda and Dhrangardra legislator, Parshottam Sapariya had quit.

"He (Dharaviya) has stated that he has resigned on his own volition, without any pressure. I have accepted his resignation and now he is no more a legislator," Trivedi told reporters.

Dharaviya is said to be miffed over his chances of being considered for Jamnagar Parliamentary seat receding, as Patel quota stir leader Hardik Patel, who has announced his decision to join Congress on March 12 in presence of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, may be fielded from there.

The total number of desertions of MLAs from Gujarat Congress ranks in the past few months now stands at five.

Apart from these five, the Congress lost another MLA when Bhagvan Barad was disqualified from the membership of the House on March 5 following his conviction and two year jail sentence in an illegal mining case.

In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji Bavalia had resigned as legislator and was later made a cabinet minister in the state government. He then won the bypoll on a BJP ticket.

Last month, first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and the Congress, and joined the ruling BJP.

The BJP now has 100 MLAs in the 182-member House while the Congress has 71 MLAs.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting will be held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The meeting would be followed by a mega rally at Adalaj town in Gandhinagar where Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is likely to address her first public rally after entering politics.

CWC, the highest decision-making body of the Congress, will be meeting in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for the first time since 1961, after a gap of 58 years.

(With inputs from agencies)