Vaghela won’t go back to BJP, says will become voice of the disgruntled

A day after Congress suspended eight lawmakers for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha election, former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela on Thursday ruled out going back to the BJP or floating a new party.

“Except me, other MLAs, including my son Mahendrasinh Vaghela, are likely to join BJP,” said Vaghela, who has RSS roots. He added that he would resign as MLA in the coming week.

However, this will dent the vote bank of a rejuvenated Congress as the party is banking on farmers, Patidars and OBC youth who are fighting for job reservations, to take on the BJP.

Vaghela also termed the Election Commission’s decision to invalidate two votes as wrong. Congress candidate Ahmed Patel won the Rajya Sabha poll because of the commission’s nod.

The former chief minister said he changed his mind and voted against Patel after Congress’ Gujarat in charge Ashok Ghelot did not apologise for his statement that Vaghela left the Congress fearing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED). “It was at the eleventh hour that I informed Patel about my decision of not voting for him,” he said.

Vaghela also accused the Congress of hatching a conspiracy in advance to ensure Patel’s victory, claiming the party had prepared the draft to raise objections to a few votes a day before the polling took place. “The Congress had decided whose votes would be challenged. The party had already prepared its arguments to be made before EC,” he said.

The disgruntled leader added that the polling would not have been required at all had the Congress paid heed to its MLAs.

He also slammed the EC for not taking any action against senior party leader Shaktisinh Gohil who, while acting as a polling agent, apparently tried to snatch the ballot paper from Raghavji Patel.

“He (Gohil) stood from his seat and tried to touch Raghavji Patel. Raghavji would have fallen. A polling agent is not supposed to leave his seat. In the video, he (Gohil) is clearly seen violating this,” Vaghela said.

There should be a common question paper for all aspirants taking NEET exam — a common window test for private and government medical colleges — the Supreme Court said on Thursday.

A bench headed by justice Dipak Misra asked CBSE to explain how it proposes to have identical questions as it pulled up the board for setting different papers for students taking NEET in regional languages.

“There should be one question paper for all aspirants. The main paper can be in English and questions can be translated into regional languages,” the bench told CBSE lawyer additional solicitor general Maninder Singh. CBSE was also asked to set out in its affidavit how it will carry out NEET in the future, while ensuring the difficulty level in questions is maintained.

The three-judge bench was hearing a petition filed by NGO Sankalp Charitable Trust on whose plea the top court had last year ruled that NEET would be the single-window exam to admit medical students in all colleges.

The petitioner’s lawyer, senior advocate Indira Jaising, said the standard of question papers in English and regional languages was different. She cited data and ratio between the number of students who took NEET in English/ Hindi and the equivalent ratio with respect to students who qualified in support of her submission. She argued that questions in regional languages were not identical to questions in Hindi and English and there was a difference in difficulty level.

Singh admitted the discrepancy but said the difficulty level was the same.

THE FORMER CM SAID HE CHANGED HIS MIND AND VOTED AGAINST AHMED PATEL AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR