Shankersinh Vaghela

Shankersinh Vaghela (born 21 July 1940) is an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Vaghela was born to Laxmansinh and Nathuba on 21 July 1940 in Vasan in Gandhinagar district, in Gujarat.

He completed Master of Arts in economics from Gujarat University.

Vaghela married Gulab Ba on 9 June 1960, with whom he has three sons.

Vagela started his political career with the Jana Sangh, which later merged into the Janata Party in 1977.

After Janata Party split into various factions, Vaghela became a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

After the Emergency was lifted, he was elected to the 6th Lok Sabha (1977-1979) on a Janata Party ticket from Kapadvanj but lost that seat in 1980 elections.

He was the Vice-President of the Janata Party in Gujarat and from 1980 to 1991 he was the General Secretary and President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat.

He was also a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1984 to 1989.

He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1984 to 1989.

He has also served as a Member of Parliament, having been elected to the 6th, 9th (1989-1991), 10th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabhas.

In 1989 he was elected to the 9th Lok Sabha (1989–91) from Gandhinagar and in 1991 he was re-elected to the 10th Lok Sabha (1991–96) from Godhra (Lok Sabha constituency).

In 1995, BJP won a majority of 121 seats in the 182-member Legislative Assembly.

Many party legislators expressed a preference for Vaghela as their leader.

However, the BJP leadership installed Keshubhai Patel as the Chief Minister, and the support for Vaghela was gradually eroded.

Narendra Modi is said to have thrown his weight behind Keshubhai Patel in preference to Vaghela, and was held responsible for the ensuing events by Vaghela.

In September 1995, Vaghela rebelled against the BJP leadership with the support of 47 MLAs.

In the subsequent compromise worked out by the leadership, Keshubhai Patel was replaced by a Vaghela loyalist Suresh Mehta as the Chief Minister.

Modi was temporarily banished from Gujarat.

In 1996, he broke away from the BJP and formed the Rashtriya Janata Party.

He served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 1996 to 1997.

Later, his party merged with Indian National Congress (Congress).

Vaghela lost Godhra seat in May 1996 Lok Sabha polls, and soon left Bharatiya Janata Party with his supporters, bringing down Suresh Mehta's government.

He floated his own party, named Rashtriya Janata Party and became Chief Minister with Congress Party's support in October 1996.

He won bye-poll to Gujarat Assembly from Radhanpur seat in early 1997.

But he had to resign as Chief Minister during ongoing political turmoil in Gujarat in October 1997, and his fellow-rebel ex-BJP MLA Dilip Parikh became CM with Vaghela's reluctant blessings.

Even Parikh's government did not last long and fresh elections for Gujarat Vidhan Sabha had to be called in 1998.

Vaghela did not contest these elections.

He merged his new party with Congress.

BJP came back to power with thumping majority in Gujarat in 1998 and Keshubhai Patel became CM again.

Vaghela was now established as a major politician in Indian National Congress Party.

He served as the Union Cabinet Minister of Textiles from 2004 to 2009 in the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet.

He represented the Kapadvanj constituency in the Gujarat legislative assembly from 2012 to 2017.

His son Mahendrasinh was MLA from Bayad from 2012 to 2017.

Vaghela was an active member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) before joining Jana Sangh.

He was jailed during the Indira Gandhi's Emergency.

He was the Leader of Opposition in 13th Gujarat Legislative Assembly.

On 21 July 2017, he left congress and resigned from the post of the leader of opposition.

He formed new outfit Jan Vikalp Morcha which contested but did not win any of the seats in 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election.

He was a member of the Nationalist Congress Party in 2019-20.