Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ketan Inamdar took a major step on Tuesday by tendering his resignation from the state assembly. Inamdar, a stalwart three-term MLA representing the Savli seat in Vadodara district, formally submitted his resignation to legislative assembly speaker Shankar Chaudhary.
In his resignation letter, Inamdar said he was resigning after listening to his "inner voice", although he refrained from providing further elaboration on the matter. Notably, Inamdar's political journey began with his victory as an independent candidate in the 2012 assembly election. Subsequently, he aligned himself with the BJP, securing victories in both the 2017 and 2022 elections.
Reason behind MLA's resignation
Earlier also, he announced his resignation as an MLA in January 2020, but it was not accepted by the speaker. Inamdar had then claimed senior government officials and ministers were ignoring him and his constituency and that many MLAs in the saffron party were feeling "frustrated" like him.
The BJP currently has 156 out of the total 182 seats in the Gujarat assembly. All 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will witness polling in a single phase on May 7 and vote counting will be held on June 4.
Gujarat govt appoints new home secretary
Meanwhile, Indian Administrative Service official AK Rakesh was on Monday appointed as additional chief secretary of the home department in Gujarat following an order of the Election Commission of India. Earlier in the day, seeking to ensure a level-playing field in the Lok Sabha elections, the ECI ordered the removal of the home secretaries of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Rakesh, a 1989 batch IAS official, will replace Pankaj Joshi, as per a Gujarat government order.
(With PTI inputs)
