Gandhinagar, June 5 (IANS): Striking yet another blow to the Gujarat Congress, Morbi legislator, Brijesh Merja on Friday tendered his resignation to the State Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi.

Earlier, Merja had resigned from the primary membership of the Congress.

Speaking to the media, Congress spokesperson, Hemant Vasavada said, "Whenever any election approaches whether it be the municipality elections, taluka Panchayat or district Panchayat elections, the BJP, hurting the democratic values and ethics, starts it's Mandi of horse trading. As a part of that on Thursday, two Congress MLA resigned and earlier 5 legislators had resigned and on Friday the Morbi legislator has resigned."

"The Congress MLAs are lured by the BJP party through money power. The Congress party right now is not in position and power anywhere in the state and cannot satisfy the greeds of the legislators. Those persons who are still in the Congress, not because to serve the public, but here in politics due to gain financial benefits, are expected to leave more in the coming days," Vasavada added.

Two other Congress MLAs-- Akshay Patel from Karjan and Jitu Chaudhary from Kaprada constituencies resigned on Wednesday evening.

The latest development has brought the strength of the Congress in the state assembly to 65, whereas the BJP has 103 members in the house. Merja is the eight Congress MLA to resign from the assembly membership since March.

This major setback for the Congress just ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections has left the grand old party in a fix. The polls in Gujarat will be held on June 19.