Harish Vaghela, one of the three former RJP councillors, told Express Newsline on Wednesday that the resigned members had held a meeting with Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president C D Patel at Gandhinagar on Tuesday. ``Patel had expressed his willingness to accept us as Congress members and assured that he will make a declaration to this effect in Vadodara on April 14,'' he added.

Besides councillors Vaghela, Ashwin Thakore and Geeta Desai, those who met Patel included former RJP district president Yogin Amin, former minister Ramesh Thakore and over 26 other ex-members of the party. The formal announcement will come at the Convention of Minority Communities to be convened by the Congress here on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14 in the presence of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chief Patel and leader of the Opposition, former chief minister Amarsinh Chaudhry.

The inclusion of the three councillors will increase the Congress' strength in the Vadodara Municipal Corporation to 15 from its present strength of 12. The RJP, meanwhile, will be represented by only two councillors in the civic body having a total strength of 78 councillors.

The RJP members had resigned on the charges of the party not having a policy for the minorities and the city unit being governed by a particular group of persons.