Did the Congress bend the two BJP parliamentarians from Gujarat, one of whom cross-voted in favour of the UPA government during the trust vote on Tuesday, while the other abstained?
While Somabhai Patel from the Surendranagar seat voted for the UPA, Babubhai Katara from Dahod abstained from the trust vote. Both were expelled from the party on Wednesday for anti- party activities. Till now, they were under suspension on different grounds.
While Somabhai was suspended in December 2007 for anti-party activities during the Assembly polls, Katara was suspended for his involvement in human trafficking.
Senior Congress leaders from the state said they had been in touch with Somabhai for the last several months. However, they had no communication at all with Katara. "Somabhai was in touch for quite sometime with the party top brass in the state," said Gujarat Pradesh Congress committee president Siddharth Patel.
“In fact, our association with Somabhai is almost a year old because his son contested the December Assembly polls on a Congress ticket,” said Patel. He added that no one from the party had approached Katara and asked him to abstain or vote against the BJP during the trust vote.
Patel said it was in fact wrong to say that Somabhai and Katara were BJP parliamentarians, as both had been suspended from the party and were free to vote for any party. “A suspended member has the freedom to vote in favour or against the party,” said Patel.
“The BJP lost the support of two of their MPs due to their own follies and sheer mismanagement,” said the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil.
Gohil said that L K Advani had made a bid to win back Somabhai a couple of days before the trust vote through an emissary of UP Chief Minister Mayawati. But the veteran leader turned down the overtures saying he had no desire to go back to the BJP with Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs in the state. A few days prior to the trust vote, Somabhai had also told Newsline that he had been approached by Advani, but that he had spurned the offer.
Somabhai, according to political observers, supported the UPA for his political rehabilitation. Sources close to Somabhai say he rejected Advani's overtures because he did not expect to get a BJP ticket in the next Lok Sabha elections, while the Congress reportedly offered to field him from Surendranagar.
In the two-party system in the state, Somabhai had no other alternative than to support the UPA if he wanted to continue in the state politics, they said.
Courtesy : www.expressindia.com
While Somabhai Patel from the Surendranagar seat voted for the UPA, Babubhai Katara from Dahod abstained from the trust vote. Both were expelled from the party on Wednesday for anti- party activities. Till now, they were under suspension on different grounds.
While Somabhai was suspended in December 2007 for anti-party activities during the Assembly polls, Katara was suspended for his involvement in human trafficking.
Senior Congress leaders from the state said they had been in touch with Somabhai for the last several months. However, they had no communication at all with Katara. "Somabhai was in touch for quite sometime with the party top brass in the state," said Gujarat Pradesh Congress committee president Siddharth Patel.
“In fact, our association with Somabhai is almost a year old because his son contested the December Assembly polls on a Congress ticket,” said Patel. He added that no one from the party had approached Katara and asked him to abstain or vote against the BJP during the trust vote.
Patel said it was in fact wrong to say that Somabhai and Katara were BJP parliamentarians, as both had been suspended from the party and were free to vote for any party. “A suspended member has the freedom to vote in favour or against the party,” said Patel.
“The BJP lost the support of two of their MPs due to their own follies and sheer mismanagement,” said the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil.
Gohil said that L K Advani had made a bid to win back Somabhai a couple of days before the trust vote through an emissary of UP Chief Minister Mayawati. But the veteran leader turned down the overtures saying he had no desire to go back to the BJP with Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs in the state. A few days prior to the trust vote, Somabhai had also told Newsline that he had been approached by Advani, but that he had spurned the offer.
Somabhai, according to political observers, supported the UPA for his political rehabilitation. Sources close to Somabhai say he rejected Advani's overtures because he did not expect to get a BJP ticket in the next Lok Sabha elections, while the Congress reportedly offered to field him from Surendranagar.
In the two-party system in the state, Somabhai had no other alternative than to support the UPA if he wanted to continue in the state politics, they said.
Courtesy : www.expressindia.com