Shankersinh Vaghela to go off social media to stop spread of rumours about him.
Gujarat Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela today said his "unfollowing" party vice president Rahul Gandhi on Twitter does not signal a return to the BJP. He has described his decision to do so - he stopped following not only Mr Gandhi but everyone else - as a move towards winding down activity on social media ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections later this year.
This, Mr Vaghela explained to reporters on Monday, was necessary to stop "spreading of false messages and speculation" about him; it was "not personal" he said. The 76-year-old is in fact seen to be sulking with his party after it said it will not project any one as presumptive Chief Minister. Mr Vaghela's supporters have been pushing for the Congress to project him for Gujarat Chief Minister.
The former Chief Minister waited a full day after his Twitter move before making the clarification. In that time, there was much speculation about his return to the BJP, especially after his recent meeting with the party's president Amit Shah, who too is from Gujarat. He had also skipped an event organised by the state Congress' IT cell yesterday.
On Twitter, as Mr Vaghela spring-cleaned his account, he also deleted all anti-BJP posts from his account. And he did not touch a pinned tweet from April that praises Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a one-time friend turned rival. "I appreciate @narendramodi for removing red beacons. This was something I had implemented during my chief minister tenure in 1996-97," Mr Vaghela had tweeted, commenting on PM Modi's decision to ban VIPs from the
lal batti or red beacon on their cars.
"I am already active in the Congress...you should not worry that I will go anywhere else,' Mr Vaghela said today.
Ashok Gehlot, the Congress' Gujarat chief, had last week at a party meeting said, "There are rumours again and again about Shankersinh Vaghela joining the BJP. Why don't you just ask him."
Mr Gehlot asserted that the Congress is not splitting months ahead of the elections, when it hopes to dislodge the BJP after 20 years of ruling Gujarat. The party, which has lost a series of assembly elections in different states to the BJP in recent months, can ill-afford a rebellion by Mr Vaghela. 36 of the Congress' 57 legislators demanded last month that he be projected for Chief Minister if the Congress wants to win the Gujarat elections. Mr Gehlot had ruled out that out.
Shankersinh Vaghela was in the BJP for many years and shared a close bond with PM Modi, going back to their days together in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). They, however, fell out when Mr Vaghela was sidelined for Chief Minister. He quit the BJP and launched his own party, before joining the Congress.