English
New Delhi, Mar 27: The Congress on Tuesday announced a new chief for its Gujarat unit. Amit Chavda, an MLA from Anklav, replaces Bharatsinh Solanki, the outgoing president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee. (GPCC). Solanki had been heading the GPCC since 2015. He has been an active Congress worker since 1992.
Chavda first got elected an MLA in the 2004-2007 state Assembly through a by-election. In the current Assembly, elections to which were held in December 2017, Chavda was the sitting MLA from Anklav and he won against the BJP candidate with a comfortable margin.
The decision comes close on the heels of party president Rahul Gandhi, speaking at the party’s plenary session, asking the younger generation to step forward and take charge. Inspired by his speech, party’s Goa unit chief Shantaram Naik had stepped down. He had taken up the position only last year.
Soon, speculations were rife over Uttar Pradesh PCC chief Raj Babbar also following suit and quitting from the post. However, Babbar rubbished the reports and said he had done no such thing even as sources from within the party claimed he had been hinting at it for days. Babbar went on to say that he would do his job till asked to step down. He said, “I don’t know from where this rumour is doing the rounds. In any case, all of us are party workers; posts and positions are symbolic.”
Meanwhile, Amit Chavda has the daunting task of getting the party’s act together for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. BJP has held the reins in the state since 1995 and the Congress has as few as 60 seats in the 182-seat state Assembly. So Chavda would need to infuse new life in the rank and file for the general elections in a state that has been under the saffron rule for decades now.
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