Miffed over ticket allocation for civic polls, Cong MLA quits

Gujarat Congress MLA Imran Khedawala said he is unhappy with the way tickets were given to Congress candidates in the Behrampura ward of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) that falls under his Assembly constituency Jamalpur-Khadia.

Ahmedabad:Gujarat Congress MLA Imran Khedawala on Monday tendered his resignation to the state party president Amit Chavda to express displeasure over ticket allocation in the award under his Assembly segment in Ahmedabad for the upcoming municipal corporation elections. State Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said Khedawala submitted his resignation from the party to Chavda but it was not accepted.

Talking to reporters, Khedawala said he is unhappy with the way tickets were given to Congress candidates in the Behrampura ward of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) that falls under his Assembly constituency Jamalpur-Khadia.

A civic ward has four seats and a party can field those many candidates. "In addition to tickets given to four candidates from the Behrampura ward under my constituency, the party gave a mandate to two more candidates separately. "I told the (GPCC) president (Chavda) that this is not done as this shows lack of discipline in the party. The party should not do injustice to dedicated workers in my Assembly constituency," the opposition legislator told reporters. "To make my point, I submitted my resignation," he said.

Doshi admitted the Congress MLA is unhappy over ticket distribution. "Imran Khedawala met state president Amit Chavda and the leader of the opposition in the Assembly Paresh Dhanani, and expressed his displeasure over-allocation of mandate to candidates in the Behrampura ward under his constituency. "He submitted his resignation to the state party president, but it has not been accepted," Doshi said.

Dhanani said the party will look into the issues raised by the MLA. "We heard his viewpoints and took them into consideration. If we find that injustice has been done to party workers, then in coming days, the party will ensure these workers are given special responsibility with full respect.

"With this, the party has turned down his resignation," said Dhanani. The party's senior leadership had earlier in the day called Khedawala for a meeting. Khedawala said he wanted to know if someone from within the party played some kind of mischief in the allocation of tickets to candidates.

Another Congress MLA of Dariyapur, Ahmedabad Gyasuddin Shiekh supported Khedawala and said that party high command should consider the request and resolve.

Meanwhile, ETV Bharat spoke to Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi over the phone and he said that he has not been approached for submission of any resignation yet by anybody.