Arjun Modhwadia, a veteran Congress leader and Porbandar MLA, has tendered his resignation from the party after four decades of service.
On Monday, he submitted his resignation as the MLA to the speaker of the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha. In a letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Modhwadia expressed his decision to step down from the party. He highlighted his dissent with the Congress’s choice to decline an invitation to the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 11.
Gujarat Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia resigns from the Congress party.
— ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2024
His letter to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge reads, "…Prabhu Ram is not just Pujaniya to Hindus, but he is the Aastha of Bharat. Declining the invitation to witness pran pratishtha mahotsav has hurt the… pic.twitter.com/jHCpn6nOD1
Describing Lord Ram as the “Aastha of Bharat,” Arjun Modhwadia expressed his disappointment, stating that the Congress had disregarded “the sentiments of the people” and had “failed to gauge the sentiments of the people.”
In his letter, he wrote, “I have encountered numerous individuals who felt offended by how the Congress party insulted Lord Ram by boycotting the Mahotsav in Ayodhya.”
The former MLA criticized Rahul Gandhi for his actions, accusing him of attempting to disrupt and demean the Pran Pratishta ceremony. “To further distract and humiliate this sacred occasion, Rahul Gandhi attempted to create chaos in Assam, which only served to anger our party members and citizens of Bharat,” he stated.
Feeling “helpless to serve the people,” Modhwadia announced his resignation from the party.
Arjun Modhwadia, a former Gujarat Congress president and former Leader of Opposition, had been elected twice as an MLA, winning from Porbandar in the 2022 Assembly elections.
