BJP MP Mansukh Vasava resigns from party

Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party MP and former Union minister Mansukh Vasava on Tuesday quit the party and said he would also resign from Lok Sabha in the budget session of Parliament.

In his resignation letter, Vasava (63) did not specify any reason for quitting the party, but sources said the six- term MP, who is vocal on tribal issues, has been critical of BJP's policies after he was dropped as Union minister in 2016.

Vasava in his letter to Gujarat BJP president C R Paatil said, "I am resigning so that the image of the party is not damaged because of my mistakes. I have been a loyal worker of the party, so please forgive me."

In the letter dated December 28, Vasava said he will resign as Bharuch MP after meeting the Lok Sabha Speaker during the budget session of Parliament.

Vasava said he tried his best to be loyal to the party and assimilate its values in life, but is human and prone to mistakes.

"I am a human and humans tend to commit mistakes. To ensure that the party does not suffer due to my mistakes, I resign from the party, whose forgiveness I seek," Vasava said in the letter to Paatil.

In the letter, Vasava also thanked the BJP and its central leadership for giving him "many things" and asked Paatil to inform the party leadership about his decision.

Paatil said Vasava is a sensitive person who fights for his people, and expressed confidence that he will change his plan to quit.

"In the letter sent to me, Vasava only mentioned that he will quit as an MP during the budget session. He is unhappy over some issues and I discussed them with chief minister Vijay Rupani this morning," Paatil told reporters.

He said Vasava is particularly unhappy about the declaration of the eco sensitive zone in his constituency.

Vasava had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 20 seeking withdrawal of a Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notification declaring 121 villages of Narmada district as eco sensitive zone.

"The main issue is the eco sensitive zone, declared on some portion of the land by the Centre. It appears that some people are misguiding locals over the issue after the district Collector made some entries about the land parcels.

"We are trying to convince Vasava and I am confident of a solution on this issue soon," Paatil said.

Vasava, who has been winningtribal-dominated Bharuch Lok Sabha seat since 1998, was inducted as Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs by Modi in May 2014 and was dropped in July 2016.

Angry over an extensive anti-encroachment drive, Mansukh Vasava had last year lashed out at a section of bureaucrats, saying since they live in air-conditioned houses, they do not know the plight of the poor.

Vasava had in September last year dubbed senior IAS officer Rajiv Kumar Gupta an "angrez" (Britisher) for allegedly giving orders to remove stalls and handcarts operated by local tribals near at the Statue of Unity in
Narmada district of Gujarat.