Gyan Dev Ahuja will contest from Ramgarh as an Independent. Gyan Dev Ahuja will contest from Ramgarh as an Independent.

BJP MLA from Rajasthan Gyan Dev Ahuja resigned from the party Monday, citing its “dictatorial attitude”. Ahuja, who was denied a ticket to recontest the upcoming elections from Ramgarh in Alwar district, said he would stand as an Independent. The move to drop Ahuja comes months after the Congress swept bypolls to three seats in the state, including Alwar. The BJP has fielded Sukhwant Singh from Ramgarh instead.

“Protesting against the dictatorial attitude of BJP, I have resigned from primary membership of the party. I will contest as an Independent on issues like Ram Janmabhoomi, cow protection and Hindutva,” Ahuja told news agency ANI.

Earlier this year, in a purported audio clip, Ahuja was heard blaming Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for the loss in Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha bypolls. A vocal critic of the Raje government, Ahuja had quit from seven government committees in January 2017 for being overlooked for a ministerial post. However, he maintained he merely wanted to spend more time in his constituency.

Ahuja had come under the spotlight for a string of controversial statements in the last few years. In February 2016, he claimed 50,000 pieces of bones, 3,000 used condoms, 500 used abortion injections, 10,000 cigarette “pieces” were found daily at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, where “girls and boys dance naked” in cultural programmes.

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Ahuja also said he had “no regret” over the death of Pehlu Khan, who was lynched by a mob in Alwar in April 2017. “We should not take the law into our hands. But we have no regret over his death because those who are cow-smugglers are cow-killers, sinners like them have met this fate earlier and will continue to do so,” he had said.

After a man smuggling bovines was assaulted in Alwar in December 2017, he had said: “Smuggle or slaughter cows, and you’ll be killed.”

Rajasthan goes to polls in one phase on December 7 and the results will be declared on December 11.

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