With youngsters being given prominence in the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) post Rahul Gandhi’s coronation as All India Congress Committee (AICC), apparently senior Congress leaders in Gujarat Congress have started feeling the pinch.
Hardik Patel’s pro-quota Patidar agitation, OBC leader Alpesh Thakor’s movement over in-effective implementation of prohibition law and Jignesh Mevani’s Dalit right stir helped the oldest political party to improve its tally in 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls from mere 60 seats to 77 compared to previous 2012 Assembly elections. Acceptance of these three youngsters in their communities encouraged Congress leadership to take forward the same political strategy for the upcoming 2019 lok Sabha polls by encouraging youth within the party’s Gujarat unit.
With a view to snatch away traditional Patidar vote bank of BJP, Congress promoted 41-year-old Amreli MlA Paresh Dhanani as leader of Opposition surpassing senior Congress MlA Kuvarji Bavalia. The Congress think tank also replaced Bharatsinh Solanki by appointing 40-year-old Anklav MlA Amit Chavda as GPCC president last month.
Moreover former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot replaced by 43-year-old Rajiv Satav as Gujarat Congress in-charge on March 30, 2018. Satav is Member of Parliament from Hingoli lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra.
Bavalia, Solanki and Gehlot are in their late sixties while the new incumbents have just crossed forties. Not only these three leaders but many others including Jagdish Thakor, Siddharth Patel, Virji Thummer, Shailesh Parmar, former Union Minister and tribal leader Tushar Chaudhary, Madhusudan Mistry to name few would have very little role to play in GPCC’s affairs.
Recently former Gujarat Minister and senior Congress leader Shanktisinh Gohil too was shifted from Gujarat and appointed as in-charge for Bihar Congress.
Already the most senior Congress leader from Gujarat and Rajya Sabha member Ahmed Patel is concentrating on AICC and national politics.
If sources in GPCC have to be believed as the lok Sabha elections would come nearer Young Turks like Alpesh Thakor will get prominence. With Mevani and Hardik openly supported Congress in the last Assembly polls, they too will play important role in the Opposition Party’s poll strategy for the upcoming 2019 lok Sabha elections.
In the 2014 lok Sabha polls Congress couldn’t open its account in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home-state Gujarat and lost all 26 seats. According to a senior Congress leader the grand old party wouldn’t leave a single stone unturn to win maximum number of seats from the State even if it would have to resort on caste based politics.