The Congress has suffered two blows in just one day as two leaders resigned from the party today. After Ambrish Der, Porbandar MLA Arjun Modhwadia has also resigned from the post of MLA today.

Modhwadia reached the Gujarat Assembly and submitted his resignation to speaker Shankar Chaudhary. After this resignation, the strength of Congress in the assembly has reduced to 14 and Assembly seats have summed up to 177.

The by-election for this seat will also be held along with the other four seats.

Ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Nyay Jodo Yatra in Gujarat, Modhwadia was one of the two Congress leaders who left the party on the same day.

Last month Modhwadia refuted the reports of joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Modhwadia was leader of Opposition from 2004 to 2007. He had been a president of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) from 2011-2012.

He was elected from Porbandar constituency again in the 2022 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election as Congress candidate defeating his BJP candidate Babu Bokhiria.

As per sources, Modhwadia is likely to join BJP.

Simultaneously, he has also resigned from the Congress and reportedly mentioned the reasons for it, including the party’s decision to not attend the Ram temple consecration. He also mentioned one of the reasons being Rahul Gandhi’s ‘attempt to create ruckus in Assam’ in his letter.

Meanwhile, the BJP has announced that former Congress MLAs are to join the party on Mar 5 in the presence of state BJP chief CR Patil.

Arjun Modhwadia addresses press conference:

While addressing a presser after submitting his resignation, Modhwadia said, “I am resigning today as Porbandar’s MLA, and also from all the positions and membership of Gujarat Congress. I joined the party back in 1982 and served it in every way possible. I was elected as an MLA from my constituency for the third time, and I have also served them sufficiently.”

On leaving his grand old party, he said, “It was tough to leave the party. But I was feeling suffocated there for a while. And I had no resort left other than this. I did not know how to contribute to the party’s opinions. I won’t be able to change how the party is working anyway. The party has to introspect why the leader of my stature has to resign.”

Talking about the reasons for his resignation, Modhwadia said, “Neither I am blaming anyone, nor I am scared of anyone’s mandate. However, after I learned that the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha invitation was declined, I made several requests to the party high command to avoid making such decisions. The decision-makers were ignoring the people’s voices. This has been persistently going on for the past five to seven years.”

Addressing the speculations of him joining the BJP, despite hurling timely verbal attacks on the party members in the past, Modhwadia said that it would be “their generosity to let me in.”

Also Read:

Former MLA Ambrish Der resigns from Congress, likely to join BJP