Gujarat Congress MLA Chirag Patel, who represented the Khambhat Assembly constituency, resigned from the Gujarat Assembly on Tuesday. He tendered his resignation to Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary in Gandhinagar. After resigning, Patel said that the ideology of the Congress party is against the country.
"There are a lot of reasons for resigning from Congress. The main reason is the party's ideology which is against the country...Congress leaders do not have a positive approach," Patel said.
Alleging groupism in the grand old party's state unit, Patel said that it is being "operated from Delhi directly by the central leadership as if they are running a princely state while sitting in air conditioned bungalows," as reported by news agency PTI. He further claimed that many other MLAs were also unhappy in the Congress and felt suffocated.
The Gujarat Assembly speaker later told reporters that he had accepted Patel's resignation. With this, the Congress's strength in the 182-member assembly has come down to 16. Patel had defeated sitting BJP MLA Mahesh Raval in Khambhat in the assembly polls held last year.
The saffron party retained power in the state after winning 156 seats. Speaking to reporters, Patel blamed the working style of the Congress leadership for his decision and claimed that some more party MLAs may also resign if the situation does not improve.
"I decided to resign after consulting people from my constituency. Like me, many MLAs are unhappy because they feel suffocated in the party. Groupism is at its peak in the Congress, and local party affairs are operated from Delhi directly by the central leadership as if they are running a princely state while sitting in air-conditioned bungalows," Patel said, as quoted by PTI.