Will be the kingmaker in Gujarat elections: Shankersinh Vaghela

AHMEDABAD: Former Congress strongman Shankersinh Vaghela has fielded more than 130 candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections and has expressed confidence of emerging as the kingmaker.

Vaghela believes the Gujarat electorate will vote for his party and without his support no party would be able to form the next government in Gujarat.

The 77-year-old former chief minister alleged both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have a centralised system and all the orders are passed from the 'high command' in Delhi.

Promising to end the high command system, Vaghela assured of providing an alternative system through his political front Jan Vikalp'.

He said that the high command culture in the Congress forced him to resign from the party and form a political outfit.

Vaghela rubbished Congress' charge that he or his son Mahendrasinh Vaghela were aligned to the BJP. He claimed that his son had only once visited the BJP office as the leaders from the ruling party had called him to have a discussion over his rival candidate.

The former Congressman categorically said that he and his son wouldn't contest the Gujarat polls.

While denying that the Gujarat election was a battle of pride for him, Vaghela expressed confidence in the electorate that it would vote for his 'Jan Vikalp'.

Recalling the days when he first time became the Gujarat chief minister, the 77-year-old said that he never used 'lal batti' and had doors opened for the common citizen.

Interestingly, Vagehla said he follows the same principle as of the Aam Aadmi Party, which is now ruling the national capital.

He further claimed not a single tainted candidate has been given an election ticket from his party.

Vaghela on September 19 had announced that he will lead a new political 'front' which will contest all seats in the upcoming assembly polls.

Vaghela said the front 'Jan Vikalp' was floated by some city-based "professionals", who approached him to provide an alternative to the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in Gujarat, and claimed a number of people wanted to see him as the chief minister.

The BJP has been in power in Gujarat since 1998 and it is important for the party that it maintains its hold on the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when it goes into the 2019 general elections.

Voting for the two-phase polls are scheduled for December 9 and 14. The vote count will take place on December 18.