Ahmedabad, Mar 12 (PTI) Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Bharatsinh Solanki on Tuesday said he does not wish to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and rather wants to focus on campaigning for the party.
The 70-year-old former Gujarat Congress president, however, also said he will accept whatever decision is taken by the party leadership.
“My family and I have been given a lot by the Congress party over the decades. Considering my current responsibility as AICC in-charge Jammu & Kashmir and to be able to effectively campaign for the party in Gujarat, I humbly convey to the high command of my wish not to contest this election,” the former Lok Sabha member said on X.
“Nevertheless, being a lifelong soldier of Congress, I will accept and obey whatever decision is made by the Central leadership,” he added.
Bharatsinh Solanki, son of former Gujarat Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki, won from Gujarat’s Anand Lok Sabha in 2004 and 2009. He served as the Union Minister of State for Power and Railways in the UPA-II government.
He served as the Gujarat Congress unit president from 2015 to 2018.
In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he faced back-to-back defeats at the hands of BJP candidates as the saffron party won all the 26 seats in Gujarat.
In 2019, BJP’s Mitesh Patel defeated Bharatsinh Solanki in Anand seat by a margin of more than 1.97 lakh votes.
While the BJP has renominated Patel for the Anand Lok Sabha seat, the Congress has not yet announced its candidate. PTI PJT PD GK
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