Rahul to meet and greet Congress workers in Gujarat

After losing a battle which, however, won the Congress its revived image, party President Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Gujarat on Saturday to greet party workers. Gujarat becomes the first State to be visited by the newly-crowned Congress President.

Rahul will be on a day-long visit to Ahmedabad, meeting all the candidates who won as well as lost the polls, and the party workers.

He will discuss plans to strengthen the grass-root base of the party even after failing to form a government in the State for 22 years.

Rahul’s visit, immediately after the results announcement, is being looked at with much significance for the emergence of a new leadership within the State unit, with charged-up workers. However, the top leadership proved a complete damp squib in the recently concluded polls.

Former Leader of Opposition and national AICC spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil lost in Mandvi with a margin of over 9,000 votes. Former presidents of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), Arjun Modhwadia and Siddharth Patel, lost from Porbandar and Dabhoi with margins of 1,855 votes and 2,839 votes respectively. Former Union Minister Tushar Chaudhary lost by 6,433 votes from Mahuva-ST constituency.

The deliberations during Rahul’s interactions with party workers and senior leaders are also likely to pave the way for the appointment of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. Paresh Dhanani, a strong Patidar leader from Saurashtra and Congress MLA from Amreli, defeated the BJP’s Bavku Undhad with a margin of over 12,000 votes. He is among the favourites for the post besides others including Sailesh Parmar from Danilimda constituency and Kunvarji Bavaliya from Jasdan constituency.

Much before the elections were announced for the 182-seat Gujarat assembly, Rahul had been touring Gujarat extensively to mobilise support for the party. The Congress fared relatively well as it managed to cause a dent in the BJP fortress of Saurashtra, where the former completely swept three districts including the crucial ceramics cluster of Morbi.

This, according to insiders, helped the party give its best performance in the State elections since 1985, when it had secured 149 seats under the leadership of Madhavsinh Solanki.

In the recently concluded polls, the Congress won 77 seats with an increased vote share of 41.4 per cent as against 38.9 per cent in 2012 and 38 per cent in 2007.

The GPCC has also organised a three-day meeting on December 20-22 to review the Gujarat Assembly election results.

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