6 BJP MLAs resign, expected to join Cong

Gandhinagar, Nov 17 (UNI) Six ruling BJP dissident MLAs today resigned from the Gujarat Legislative Assembly and expressed their desire to join the Congress.

Leader of the dissident group, Dhiru Gajera, a BJP MLA from Surat, told UNI, ''I and my five other colleageues have submitted our resignations to the Gujarat Assembly Speaker to end our relationship with the BJP and make way for going ahead with the Congress.'' He said ''We are in touch with senior Congress leaders to join the Party and we have been given a verbal promise that the Party (Congress) would offer us tickets for the forthcoming Gujarat assembly polls, to be held on December 11 and 16.'' Besides, Mr Gajera, others who resigned from the BJP are Bechar Bhadani, Bavku Unghad (both former ministers), Balu Tanti, Gopal Dhua and Narendrasinh Jadeja.

Of these six rebels, Gajera, Bhadani, Unghad and Tanti were suspended recently by the BJP for their anti-party activities, while action against the other two was yet to be taken.

UNI