Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spent almost his entire day from 10 am onwards till about 4 pm patiently listening to his party leaders from Gujarat who still remain intensely divided about who the next Gujarat Congress President and Leader of Opposition be.
All factions and over two dozen leaders met Rahul to present the names they think fit for the position.
Gujarat will have Assembly elections in December 2022. The BJP changed its chief minister and entire council of ministers in September but the Congress has not been able to find a president and Leader of Opposition for Gujarat since nearly two years. Amit Chavda and Paresh Dhanani had resigned in May 2019 after they could not manage to win a single Loksabha seat in Gujarat. The BJP won all the 26 seat loksabha seats. Unfortunately, last year, Gujarat Incharge Rajeev Satav too died following Covid complications. His replacement, Raghu Sharma was appointed this month.
Today morning, Rahul Gandhi met everyone from Hardik Patel to Bharat Solanki, Arjun Modhvadia, Siddharth Patel, Amit Chavda, Shaktisinh Gohil, Ami Yagnik to Jignesh Mewani, Paresh Dhanani, Shailesh Parmar and others. Every faction has given a name of their choice.
Sources claim that no decision has yet been taken but it has been decided that the Congress High Command will announce the final names latest by November 10. After the names are announced, the Congress will host a Chintan Shivir, a conclave to officially begin preparations for 2022 elections. Unlike 2017, which the Congress lost Gujarat by a very close edge, this time the Congress also has to face Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) and All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
Gujarat has 182 seats in the Assembly. The Congress has not won a majority vote in Gujarat since 1990. After Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister in 2001, the BJP has not lost a single election. However, the BJP is yet to match the record of seats won under the leadership of late BJP veteran Keshubhai Patel.
