Unlike Uttar Pradesh, the Congress party is set to contest Gujarat Assembly polls without projecting its Chief Ministerial candidate said sources in the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC).
In the previous three polls the grand old party fought Assembly elections in Gujarat against Narendra Modi led Gujarat BJP in the same
manner. Despite the fact the Congress party lost Assembly polls miserably against Modi wave, it is repeating the same theory again. The only
difference is that in the upcoming 2017 Assembly polls Gujarat BJP would contest without Modi as Chief Minister.
“It is known fact that Gujarat Congress has been divided in many factions headed by senior leaders. In such scenario, projecting the Chief Ministerial candidate would only invite more rifts and discontent in the party,” said a senior GPCC leader, adding that the Central leadership wants all factions contest the Assembly polls as a single unit as they want to take maximum advantage out of ongoing pro-quota Patidar agitation, situation post demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes and incident related to flogging of Dalit youth in Saurashtra region.
According to him the winning Assembly polls in Prime Minister’s home turf would work as huge morale booster for the Congress party and hence the focus of the national leadership would increase on Gujarat’s politics.
The Congress party has been out of power since 1989 in Gujarat and its leadership firmly believe that their party has fair chance to come in power after the gap of almost three decades.
Among four main aspirants for the coveted Chief Minister’s position if the Congress party would come to power including GPCC president Bharatsinh Solanki, leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela, senior leader Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhvadia, he said adding that the front runner amongst them is Vaghela.
Many in the Congress believe that in spite of his RSS background, Vaghela is the only person in the party who got the ability to counter BJP’s poll strategy. He was on centre stage of Gujarat politics after he uprooted Keshubhai Patel led BJP government in 1996 and went on to become Gujarat Chief Minister by forming his own political outfit Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP). later RJP merged into Congress.