India News | Withdrew from Poll Fray on Insistence of My Father, Claims Gujarat Cong Leader Rohan Gupta

Ahmedabad, Mar 20 (PTI) Congress leader Rohan Gupta has claimed that he decided to withdraw his candidature from Ahmedabad (East) Lok Sabha seat on the insistence of his father who refused to avail treatment in the ICU where he was rushed to due to panic attack unless his son give in to his demand.

Notably, Rohan's father Rajkumar Gupta had unsuccessfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket from the erstwhile Ahmedabad seat, which was later split into Ahmedabad East and Ahmedabad West constituencies.

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According to Rohan, his father doesn't want him to experience what he had faced 20 years ago during the poll contest.

Speaking to media persons on Tuesday night, Rohan said his father was not happy with his decision to contest the election and to pressure him, he resigned from Congress a few days back and also severed his decades-old ties with the Grand Old Party.

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"My father fell unconscious and had to be rushed to the ICU, but he refused to take the injection and asked me to give in writing that I will abide by his wish to not contest the election," Rohan claimed.

He, however, was quiet on why his father was so keen to ensure that his son doesn't contest.

In 2004 polls, the Gupta senior was defeated by BJP's Harin Pathak by a margin of 77,000 votes.

Rohan has been serving as the Congress's national spokesperson since 2022 and was recently picked by the party to contest from Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha seat against BJP's Hasmukh Patel.

Rohan late Monday night announced that he had withdrawn from the contest due to his father's serious medical condition.

Rohan said his father, who was underwent bypass surgery 15 years ago, was admitted to the ICU after he fell unconscious on Monday.

"I had agreed to contest because I always believed in putting the party first, but my father was not ok with this decision," he said.

Rohan said he had started poll preparations, put up a 100-member team, and was also supposed to organise a public rally on March 20.

I wanted to open my election office on March 23 and also chalked out the route for the door-to-door campaign, he added.

"In the last week, I was busy with all this and wanted to send a message on how one can contest an election with proper management. ..Everybody knows it is a tough seat. I wanted to contest it with my full might and send a message to the entire Gujarat," according to Rohan.

Rohan said his decision to contest elections did not go down well with his father who suffered a panic attack and his blood pressure shot up.

"All my friends tried their best to meet and convince him when he resigned from the party. I called him, and once again requested him to allow me to contest the elections," Rohan said, adding that he had to make a U-turn because his father is his priority than anything else.

"Allurements or politics; everything has to be pushed away when it comes to one's father. I am a family man and for me, family comes first," he said.

Rohan claimed he tried to convince his father in the ICU van and emergency room but failed to do so.

"It was a very difficult decision for me but had something happened to my father, I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself," the Congress leader said.

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said Rohan Gupta's sudden decision to withdraw himself from the poll fray came as a "shocker" for the party because he didn't consult local leadership before declaring the decision.

"Rohan Gupta's decision came as a shocker for the party because we trusted him and gave him such a huge opportunity. One out of thousands of eligible party workers gets a ticket to fight the Lok Sabha polls. We are disappointed because he did not ask party leadership before taking this decision," Doshi said.

The Congress party had announced seven candidates from Gujarat, which sends 26 members to Lok Sabha, including Rohan.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)