Coming down hard at the Congress leadership for sending MLAs to Bengaluru amid flood crisis in Gujarat, Shankarsinh Vaghela on Sunday said the party would suffer because of the ill-timed move.
Vaghela told news agency ANI that he had warned the top leadership that MLAs were not happy and might join the BJP.
“I was told, let them go if they want to. I said so be it,” he said.
“Had prompt action been taken, which was very much required, they need not have taken them to Bengaluru,” he added.
Vaghela said the Congress will “suffer” because of moving MLAs to Bengaluru when the state was reeling under flood.
“People are dying in flood, MLAs are not there. Bad timing of shifting MLAs is something which will make them(Congress) suffer,” ANI quoted the former Congress leader as saying.
Congress MLAs from Gujarat who have been lodged at a resort in the outskirts of Bengaluru will return to their state on Monday. The MLAs are expected to be shifted into Neejanand Resort in Gujarat till the Rajya Sabha elections conclude.
The first batch of Congress MLAs is scheduled to leave from Bengaluru at around 4 AM. 10 MLAs are expected to board the flight at around 4 AM on Monday while the rest will travel to Ahmedabad at noon. Once they reach Ahmedabad, the MLAs will be taken to Neejanand Resort on Anand-Borsad Road in Gujarat.
MLAs from Gujarat, 44 in number, were flown down to Bengaluru in three batches by the party senior leadership on last Saturday.
The Congress was forced to shift its MLAs out from Gujarat following a spate of resignations in the backdrop of Rajya Sabha elections. Ahmed Patel's election to the Rajya Sabha is of utmost importance to the Congress that has lost its ‘largest party' tag to the BJP by one seat recently.
