Shankersinh Vaghela
Lok Sabha elections 2019: Just seven months before the LS polls 2019, former Gujarat Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela expressed his desire to play the role of a coordinator between regional parties to forge an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance.
"My supporters are of the opinion that I should play the role of a coordinator to unite various regional parties which are against the ruling BJP. Even I felt that better coordination is needed between parties," news agency PTI quoted the former Gujarat chief minister, as saying, in Gandhinagar, on Tuesday.
He also said that the anti-BJP votes must never get divided.
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It is pertinent to mention here that Vaghela's son Mahendrasinh Vaghela recently joined the BJP. He was a Congress MLA till 2017.
After the Rajya Sabha (RS) polls last year, the Kshatriya strongman had quit the Congress and floated 'Jan Vikalp', a third front, ahead of the 2017 state elections. However, all the 100-odd candidates of the Vikalp lost the polls.
During the RS polls in August 2017, Vaghela along with seven other Congress MLAs had reportedly cross-voted in favour of the saffron party candidate and then resigned from the Congress.
Despite the cross-voting, Congress candidate Ahmed Patel narrowly won the election by defeating BJP nominee Balwantsinh Rajput.
(With PTI inputs)
