'Expelled' from Congress, Shankersinh Vaghela heaps praise on RSS

Gandhinagar: Veteran Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela on Friday announced that he was expelled from the party on Thursday.

Vaghela made the announcement while addressing his supporters during his 77th birthday celebrations in Gandhinagar today.

"Congress expelled me 24 hours back, fearing what I would say at the event," the former Gujarat chief minister said.

Interestingly, he heaped praise on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, saying 'RSS people are good.

Vaghela is said to be unhappy with the Congress for not having been given a free hand for the party's campaign for the state Assembly Election 2017.

He had earlier slammed the state Congress over "lack of homework" for the Assembly polls.

The maverick Vaghela, who had snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the late nineties to set up his own party that later merged with the Congress, has been asserting before the party high command to hand over reins of the December election battle to him.

Although publicly he has been denying that he wanted to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate, Vaghela said at the June 24 meeting and has often asserted before the media and his supporters publicly that there had been no planning for the elections and he had objections to the ad-hocism going on, taking a dig at Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki.