Gandhinagar, Nov 24 (IANS) Former union textiles minister Shankersinh Vaghela, whose name figures in the Liberhan Commission report on the Babri Masjid demolition, Tuesday said he was never involved in any way in the demolition of the 16th century mosque in Ayodhya.
“The first time I went to Ayodhya and Faizabad in my life was in 2008 in the company of a Congress leader friend,” said Vaghela, who rebelled against the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1995 and subsequently switched over to the Congress.

“L.K. Advani had spoken to me about the Somnath to Ayodhya rath yatra, for which I made necessary arrangements in the geographical area under Gujarat in my capacity as the state BJP president. If that is construed as involvement, so be it,” Vaghela told IANS.

Vaghela said he was neither taken into confidence nor aware of any plans relating to the demolition of the mosque.

“Even while with the BJP, I have all along been opposed to the hardliners, including the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, and their politics of extreme. I also did not figure in either the planning, funding or movement of the kar sevaks,” he added.

Vaghela, who began his political career with the Jana Sangh and continued with the BJP, had rebelled in 1995, walking away to ‘Khajuraho’ with a large chunk of the party MLAs to ultimately pull down the first BJP government in Gujarat headed by Keshubhai Patel.

He subsequently became the chief minister, heading a regional outfit with outside Congress support. Later, he merged the outfit with the Congress to become the union textile minister when the UPA came to power defeating the NDA. He, however, lost the last Lok Sabha elections which he contested from Godhra.