“Neither has Congress party taken any disciplinary action against him nor has he been expelled from the party. Both these facts are entirely incorrect. Vaghela wanted that the present PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) president should be replaced and he be appointed in his place.
“This is a decision of the party and its leadership and no one individual can decide it as the party is bigger than individuals,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement.
“Each one of us needs to understand that interests of the party and its ideals are bigger than ambition of one person. We sincerely hope that he’ll continue to work for the party despite his decision to quit party posts,” he added.
Surjewala said the Congress is not representative of individuals but ideology and principles.
He said party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and crores of Congressmen and women are not fighting for power alone but for social justice, progress and “a just humane society against autocracy of a few”.
Surjewala said the party respects the Gujarat leader.
“The Congress party has always given him respect and important positions of responsibility. Vaghela was appointed as PCC president, union cabinet minister, chairman of ITDC with Cabinet minister status and is presently leader of the opposition,” he added.
Vaghela yesterday said the party high command had expelled him, but stressed he was not going to join the BJP.
Vaghela said he will resign as leader of opposition in the state Assembly and quit as MLA after the Rajya Sabha election on August 8. He claimed he was a victim of intra-party conspiracy, due to which the party had shown him the door.
On Thursday evening, the Gujarat Congress had issued a warning to Vaghela not to “play any politics” under the guise of his birthday celebrations with his supporters and legislators.
He was also told that his public utterances would not be tolerated any further.
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.