Ready to rejoin Cong to fight BJP in Guj: Shankersinh Vaghela

Former Gujarat chief ministerShankersinh Vaghela, who had quit the Congress in 2017 afterremaining in it for two decades, on Wednesday said he wasready to return to the party without any pre-conditions tofight the ruling BJP in the state.

Vaghela, 80, who currently heads a little-knownpolitical outfit called the the Praja Shakti Democratic Party(PSDP), issued a statement in which he claimed that manyCongress workers and leaders have been urging him to return tothe party.

However, before Vaghela's statement, the stateCongress earlier in the day denied as ''rumours'' the reportsthat he wouldrejoin the party in the coming days.

Vaghela had quit the Congress before the 2017 GujaratAssembly polls. Two years later, he had joined the SharadPawar-led NCP. However, in June last year, he had resignedfrom the NCP due to some differences and floated the PSDP.

In his statement, Vaghela claimed that many Congressworkers urged him ''with tears in their eyes'' to rejoin theparty when he was at Piraman village in Bharuch district lastyear to attend Congress leader Ahmed Patel's funeral.

''Apart from these workers, many Congress leaders havebeen insisting that I should join Congress. I am ready to jointhe Congress without any pre-conditions to fight the BJP. Ihave no problem in joining Congress. I will take anappropriate decision after meeting madam Sonia jee and RahulGandhi in Delhi,'' the senior leader said.

Before Vaghela's statement, state Congressspokesperson Jayrajsinh Parmar said, ''I have learned from themedia that Vaghela is joining the Congress. I want to clarifythat there is no such thing as of now. As far as I know,Vaghela has not contacted any of our leaders for the comeback.

I think only Vaghela can shed light on these rumours.'' Vaghela's party has already announced that it will notfield its candidates in the upcoming local body polls inGujarat in order to stop the anti-BJP vote division.

Vaghela had started his political career with the BJP.

After the BJP came to power in the state in 1995 and chose tomake Keshubhai Patel the chief minister instead of him,Vaghela engineered a split in the saffron outfit and becamethe CM in 1996 with outside support of the Congress.

Later, he joined the Congress and served as TextileMinister in the Manmohan Singh government.

While in the Congress, he had also served as its stateunit president and Leader of Opposition in the GujaratAssembly.