Gandhinagar: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi-friendly Congress MLA Manish Giletwala today quit the assembly and expressed his desire to join ruling BJP. Giletwala, the MLA from Surat, gave his resignation letter to Gujarat Legislative Assembly Speaker Mangaldas Patel. Soon after, his supporters garlanded Giletwala with saffron-coloured bands.

The Congress had recently served a show-cause notice to Giletwala after he took part in Modi s function at Bilimora in South Gujarat and praised the Chief Minister and expressed his desire to join BJP. Following that, Giletwala had tendered his resignation from Congress party three days ago.

After submitting his resignation to the Speaker, he told reporters today that "I got elected as an MLA on my own accord. Congress had nothing to do with my victory in 2002. I had managed to win even though there was a strong wave in favour of BJP".