Congress summons Gujarat party Chief to Delhi

New Delhi / Ahmedabad: With Congress – Patidar Amanat Arakshan Samiti (PASS) bonhomie going sour following release of candidates’ list by the Congress for the Gujarat Assembly polls, the Party high command on Tuesday summoned State party chief Bharat Singh Solanki to Delhi.Solanki is alleged to have played spoil-sport to the pact between the two outfits.

With dissent in the rank and file of PASS leaders going viral since release of first list of 77 Congress nominees late on Sunday evening, PASS leader Hardik Patel postponed the proposed rally in Rajkot on Monday and also cancelled his press conference scheduled in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

Hardik was supposed to formally announce PASS support to the Congress in the polls in the Rajkot rally.PASS leader Dinesh Bambhaniya, said to be close to Hardik Patel, had vehemently resented the Congress’s first list in which only two of their leaders were given tickets. He is also reported to have staged protest in front of Solanki’s residence.

Interestingly, Bambhaniya who had a meeting with state Congress leaders on Sunday evening, before the tickets were announced, had first informed the media that the two outfits had reached a consensus and that the Congress had accepted all the demands of PASS and Hardik would formally announce about it in the Rajkot rally on Monday. Later in the night, he informed that the rally has been cancelled.

Amidst goof-ups, the PASS leadership said the details of pre-poll arrangement and modalities of the tie-up with Congress will be made in a press conference by Hardik Patel on Tuesday in Ahmedabad. But, it too was cancelled, without giving any reason for it. Meanwhile, PASS also seems heading for a vertical split with a group charging Banmbhaniya of hobnobbing with the BJP and the NCP.(UNI)