In September 1995, Gujarat politician Shankersinh Vaghela broke away from Bharatiya Janata Party with his supporter 47

MLAs The Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) was a proposed alternative to the Maxime Faget-invented "tractor" launch escape system (LES) that was planned for use by NASA for its Orion (spacecraft), Orion spacecraft in the event an Ares I malfunction du ...

. He took his MLAs and shifted to

Khajuraho Khajuraho () is a city, near Chhatarpur in Chhatarpur district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. One of the most popular tourist destinations in India, Khajuraho has the country's largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous f ...

in Madhya Pradesh.

Background

In 1995, BJP won a majority of 121 legislators out of a 182-member Legislative Assembly, who expressed a preference for Shankersinh Vaghela as their leader. Narendra Modi is said to have thrown his weight behind Keshubhai Patel in preference to Vaghela and held responsible for the ensuing events. However, the BJP leadership installed Keshubhai Patel as the Chief Minister and the support for Vaghela was gradually eroded. But Patel resigned seven months on 21 October 1995. Suresh Mehta was made chief minister but later as Shankersinh Vaghela revolted once again and broke the party in 1996.

Political crisis

Vaghela took 105 of 121 MLAs to his village Vasan in Gandhinagar were a few MLAs of them left. Then remaining were taken to the home of

Haribhai Chaudhary Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary is an Indian politician and was the Minister of State for Ministry of Coal, Coal and Ministry of Mines (India), Mines in government of India. He represents the Banaskantha (Lok Sabha constituency), Banaskantha co ...

a local Congress leader in Charada village of Gandhinagar. Rebel MLAs was flown to

in Madhya Pradesh as there was

Digvijaya Singh Digvijaya Singh (born 28 February 1947) is an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. He is Ex-General Secretary of the Indian National Congress party's All India Congress Committee. Previously, he had served as the ...

's Congress government. Two names were suggested Suresh Mehta and

Kashiram Rana Kashiram Rana (7 April 1938 – 31 August 2012) was an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India. In 1989, he was elected to the 9th Lok Sabha from Surat constituency in Gujarat. He was re-elected to the Lok S ...

. Finally, Suresh Mehta was chosen as the chief minister. Post this rebellion, the Vaghela camp was known as 'Khajurias' those who went to Khajuraho, The Keshubhai camp was called 'Hajurias' from ''Ji Huzoori'' or flatterers and rest were called 'Majurias' are the no-where people. In

1996 Indian general election File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, Vaghela lost from

Godhra Godhra is a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Panchmahal district. Originally the name came from ''gou'' which means "cow" and ''dhara''- which have two meanings dependi ...

seat and soon left Bharatiya Janata Party with his supporters, bringing down Suresh Mehta's government. Vaghela rebelled against the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership with the support of 48 MLAs. He staked a claim to form a government with the support of Congress and also formed a political party called Rashtriya Janata Party. Vaghela was sworn in as a chief minister in October 1996. But Vaghela 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 Indian National Congress.

Aftermath

In March 1998, BJP returned to power led by Keshubhai Patel in the 1998 assembly elections and he became the chief minister again on 4 March 1998.

References

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