![\"'Narendra](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2022-11\/9o3u0dho_madhubhai-shrivastav_625x300_14_November_22.jpg\"\/ "\\"'Narendra")
<\/div>\nMadhubhai Shrivastav joined BJP in 2015; family has been with other outfits. (File)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ahmedabad: <\/b><\/p>\n
A six-time MLA who last won on the BJP ticket from Gujarat’s Waghodia segment, Madhubhai Shrivastav, has decided to contest as an Independent after the ruling party decided not to re-nominate him, and has said he rues having joined the party \u201cat Narendra Modi and Amit Shah’s insistence\u201d 25 years ago.<\/p>\n
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel \u201ccannot do anything\u201d about the ticket as \u201ceverything is decided by the top leadership in Delhi\u201d, said Mr Shrivastav, a local \u201cbahubali\u201d<\/em> or strongman-politician who was once named in a 2002 Gujarat riots case.<\/p>\n He said he hasn’t spoken to Mr Patel: \u201cWhy would I do that? I have a direct line with PM Modi and Mr Shah.\u201d But he hasn’t spoken to them either after the ticket denial, he added.<\/p>\n Sources said Mr Shrivastav was one of six rebels who refused to meet state minister Harsh Sanghavi, deputed to bring them around, over the past few days.<\/p>\n Mr Shrivastav had joined the BJP in 1995 after he won as an Independent. He and his family members have been with the Congress, Janata Dal and other outfits too.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn’t come to the BJP on my own. When I won by a huge margin in 1995, Narandra Modi and Amit Shah came to request me to join the BJP. That’s the only reason I joined the party,\u201d he claimed while speaking to NDTV over the phone. PM Modi was a BJP functionary in the state at the time, before going on to become chief minister some years later. Mr Shah, now Union Home Minister, too, was a state-level politician then.<\/p>\n Mr Shrivastav said the Vadodara district BJP chief, Ashwin Patel, who has got the ticket in his place \u201chas never won even a local election\u201d. \u201cI am obviously very upset and angry with the BJP. I have quit all posts,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The BJP has not reacted to the comments so far. It had dropped 38 sitting MLAs, including five ministers and the speaker of the assembly, in its first list of 160 candidates, out of the 282 seats.<\/p>\n While the party has seen some infighting in Gujarat \u2014 its stronghold for 27 consecutive years \u2014 it faced a more serious threat from within in Himachal Pradesh, where it had rebels on 21 of the 68 seats.<\/p>\n Himachal voted on November 12, and Gujarat is to vote on December 1 and 5, with results scheduled for December 8.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nFeatured Video Of The Day<\/h3>\n