Mohansinh Rathwa, 11-time Congress MLA, quits party ahead of Gujarat polls,

In a big blow to the Congress ahead , 11-time MLA Mohansinh Rathwa tendered his resignation on Tuesday. Rathwa, a very popular tribal leader, was a minister in the Congress government from 1990 to 95. He was first elected from the Chhota Udaipur seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, in 1972.

He lost an assembly election only once. In 2002, when the elections were held against the backdrop of the Godhra riots, he lost to a BJP candidate. He won in the next elections, but his margin of victory shrank steadily. In 2012 he won by over 2,500 votes against BJP’s Gulabsinh Rathwa, while in 2017 he won against BJP’s Arjun Rathwa by over 1,000 votes.