A day ahead of the Congress Working Committee meeting in Ahmedabad, Jamnagar (Rural) MLA Vallabh Dharaviya quit the party and tendered his resignation from the Assembly to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi on the afternoon of Monday, 11 March.
Dharaviya’s is the third resignation of a Congress MLA in the past four days. "Dharaviya has resigned as Jamnagar (Rural) MLA. He told me he is resigning voluntarily," Speaker Trivedi confirmed.
A little while before Dharaviya quit, his former party colleague Parsotam Sabariya, who had resigned as Dhrangadhra MLA on 8 March, joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of its senior leaders IK Jadeja and KC Patel.
Sabariya was arrested in October last year in connection with an irrigation scam and was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court in February. Sabariya said he was not under pressure to join the BJP and claimed he was making the switch to develop his constituency.