In a major boost to Congress ahead of the impending state assembly elections, Mahendrasinh Vaghela, son of former Gujarat chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, rejoined the party on Friday.
The move comes almost 15 days after Vaghela senior wrote to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressing his wish to return to the fold.
Mahendrasinh joined the Congress in the presence of party leaders here on Friday. He had quit the Congress before the 2017 assembly elections, along with his father.
However, on October 13 this year, in a letter to Sonia Gandhi, Vaghela senior showed his interest in joining the Congress once again. A copy of the letter is in the possession of The New Indian.
“I intend to express the feelings of the Gujarat Congress party workers, who, on many occasions, expressed that I should join the Congress as soon as possible. This will strengthen the fight against the BJP and serve the interests of the people of Gujarat,” Vaghela senior wrote.
The veteran leader said that in this regard, “almost all the senior Gujarat Congress leaders have had a series of discussions with me jointly or individually”.
“They have also pressed me to rejoin the Congress as early as possible. I have also many times expressed my feelings and willingness to rejoin Congress unconditionally as the time is crucial given the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections. The people of Gujarat are fed-up with the existing BJP government,” he wrote in his letter.
“In this connection, I request you to spare your convenient time if you deem fit and feel to have more information and discussion on this matter,” he added.
Though the rejoining of Mahendrasinh has given Congress a shot in the arm in its quest to end the party’s 27-year wait in the state, it is not yet clear when the former CM will be joining.
Meanwhile, newly appointed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is all set to visit Navsari on October 29. It will be Kharge’s first visit to any state after he took over the reigns of the grand old party on October 26.