Gujarat Congress leader and former MLA Raghu Desai, who lost the recently concluded assembly polls, asked the central leadership to suspend state unit president Jagdish Thakor, saying his “close associates” had worked against the party.
Desai, who lost the election from Radhanpur Assembly seat in Patan district, made the demand in a letter sent to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday and shared with the media on Tuesday.
The former MLA alleged that Thakor’s “close associates” had worked against the Congress party and that he and his associates had also played a key role in ensuring her defeat from Radhanpur.
In his response, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president refrained from giving a direct reply to his party colleague’s allegations, but said he understands how a person feels after losing an election.
In a letter to Kharge, Desai demanded that Thakor and his close aides, who had worked against him in Radhanpur, “be suspended from the party with immediate effect”.
He said, ‘Some party leaders acted against the interest of the party and also to defeat me in the elections. Some of them were close associates of Jagdish Thakor. As GPCC president, he never controlled such people and was instrumental in defeating me,” alleged Desai.
When asked about the letter, Thakor said, “I have also received that letter. I can very well understand how the losing candidate feels. Losing is not easy to digest. I don’t want to comment further as I have discussed the issue three to four times (with Desai) recently.” The former Radhanpur MLA was voted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the elections held earlier this month. Lovingji Thakor was defeated.
Desai came into limelight after defeating BJP candidate and prominent OBC leader Alpesh Thakor in a 2019 bypoll, later resigned as Congress MLA from Radhanpur and contested the seat as the ruling party’s candidate.
This time, the BJP fielded Alpesh Thakor from Gandhinagar South seat, from where he won, and party’s old guard Lovingji Thakor from Radhanpur.
Before polling, Desai was confident of retaining Radhanpur, but eventually lost the seat to the BJP.
In the recently held elections, the Congress ended with 17 assembly seats, its lowest ever in Gujarat.
read all latest politics news Here