Janjivan Bureau / NEW DELHI: Former Gujarat chief minister and congress party senior leader Shankersinh Vaghela said on his birthday Today that he was “expelled from the Congress” 24 hours earlier, “before they knew” what he “was going to announce” during his birthday celebrations.On his 77th birthday, Shankersinh Vaghela met British Deputy High Commissioner Geoff Wain in Gandhinagar.
“I will not retire from politics,” Vaghela added on Friday, fueling speculation that he may return to the BJP, which he quit a little under twenty years ago. If he does join the BJP, it will give the party a huge boost ahead of the November state Assembly polls.
“Few days back I met Sonia ji in person, I told her that I will not break her trust by joining BJP” Vaghela said.
Vaghela was a BJP rebel who had merged his Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) with the Congress 17 years ago.
Vaghela is miffed with Congress, which turned down his demand that he be declared the face of the party’s campaign and the CM candidate in the assembly polls. His last-ditch meetings with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul failed to achieve desired results and it was Sonia’s political secretary Ahmed Patel who finally conveyed to him that projecting him as a leader would upset the original Congressmen, that is, state party chief Bharatsinh Solanki and two former leaders of opposition in the assembly, Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia.
