Nationalist Congress Party MLAs’ vote division a smart political move?

VADODARA: One repaid a five-year-old debt and another has been promised a bigger role in Gujarat’s flourishing Rs 35,000 crore dairy cooperative sector.

The two Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLAs –

Jayant Patel nee Boskey

and Kandhal Jadeja – went separate ways in the high-voltage Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday.

While Boskey voted for Congress, Kandhal Jadeja voted for BJP. Jadeja represents Kutiyana constituency in Porbandar district in the state assembly.

'Boskey' had got elected from Anand district which is a stronghold of state Congress president

Bharatsinh Solanki

and he would need Congress support to get re-elected.

Political grapevine is abuzz with talks that Jadeja, who has several criminal cases pending against him, has been promised not only a BJP ticket in November but also a major role in one of the dairy cooperatives which BJP controls. However, there was no official confirmation about this.

There is also a buzz that the Sharad Pawar-Praful Patel combine wanted to keep both BJP and Congress happy.

By voting for the Congress, Boskey, the Umreth MLA, has in a way paid back to the party which had offered him a safe seat five years back during the 2012 Gujarat assembly elections.

In 2012, Boskey, who was earlier representing Sarsa assembly constituency in Anand district, was looking for a fresh seat from Anand district after the Sarsa got eliminated due to delimitation.

It was then that Congress-NCP alliance ahead of the assembly elections acted a saviour for him.

Boskey contested and won the Umreth assembly constituency for which the Congress despite opposition from within the party even dropped its sitting MLA Lalsinh Vadodia who wanted to contest for a second term and win the Umreth seat.

After he was ditched by the Congress to favour the NCP state chief, Vadodia who had joined the Congress in 2006 after leaving the saffron fold, re-joined BJP which made him a Rajya Sabha member.

Ahead of the state assembly elections this year, Boskey wants to ensure that he continues winning Umreth assembly seat with the support of Congress.

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