Gandhinagar, (Samajweekly) The Congress in Gujarat has written a letter to Governor Acharya Devvrat about a BJP minister saying in presence of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani during an election rally that the ruling BJP government gave less funds to the Congress legislators.
Gujarat’s Minister of State for Forest and Tribal development Raman Patkar made the remarks while addressing the people during an election rally at Kaprada constituency. Rupani was also present there.
Both were campaigning for Jitu Chaudhari, the Congress turncoat who resigned from his constituency and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Congress has lodged a formal complaint and urged the Governor for an immediate action against the BJP government and the Minister.
Patkar in his address to the public said: “Jitubhai faced a lot of difficulties when he was with the Congress, as we (BJP government) used to allocate him less funds for your area, as we had to give the balance money to the Sangathan (organisational structure). For that reason, even when Jitubhai promised something in your area, it could not be fulfilled. But now as he is in the BJP, he will get more funds with which he will be able to do work in your area.”
The Congress has complained to the Governor that such a statement from a Minister is “completely unconstitutional and contrary to the oath taken by him as prescribed under the third schedule of the constitution”.
The party mentioned in its complaint that the constitutional oath has been grossly violated by Patkar as well as the Gujarat government. It said the Chief Minister was also present there and he did not refute Patkar’s statement.
“From the Minister’s address, does it mean that the elected legislators, if he or she is from the opposition party, are not given their constitutional rights and their constituencies will be deprived of their benefits… and then such legislators would be lured into the saffron fold so that people’s work will be done after that,” wondered Paresh Dhanani, the Leader of Opposition.
