Former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela said on his birthday on Friday that he was "expelled from the Congress" 24 hours earlier.

"Am still with Congress, but before I could say anything here, they threw me out," the Congress' most senior leader said, as the 5000-strong crowd gathered to celebrate his 77th birthday cheered for Mr Vaghela, Bapu to his supporters.  He said he was expelled because the Congress was perturbed he might say something untoward during his birthday celebrations a day later.

Under strict orders from the party to stay away, only two Congress lawmakers, Mr Vaghela's son Mahendrasinh and Raghavji Patel, have so far turned up for the birthday celebrations in Gandhinagar, apart from two from the Nationalist Congress Party. 

Mr Vagehla, who has been flexing muscle and issuing veiled warnings to his party, He had traveled to Delhi on Thursday to meet party leaders before he makes an announcement, but, sources said, a meeting with senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel that he had hoped for did not happen.

"People, who are complaining today, should have made good strategy then so that BJP must not have come to the power. But their (the Congress') small thinking and BJP's luck gave the power to BJP," Vaghela railed.

"If the party wishes to concede defeat even before the fight has begun, I would not commit suicide with it," the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly had added. 


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