Ahead of the civic body polls this October and the State Assembly polls two years from now, the Congress in Gujarat is looking at rebuilding its strength, starting with roping in an old hand to take the helm of the State.
Bharatsinh Solanki, former Union Minister of State in the UPA government, formally took over as Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president on Saturday.
At a welcome ceremony in Ahmedabad, he called for strengthening the party in cities and villages.
“The State Assembly polls are still far away but in view of the civic and local body polls we have to mobilise the youth and women. The Congress is a unified party. Today the Congress and the BJP are the only two political alternatives in Gujarat unlike in the past when the contests were multipronged,” he told party workers here.
Son of former Gujarat Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki, the former two-time MP from Anand in Gujarat, has been GPCC chief on an earlier occasion. The Congress did not win a single seat in the Lok Sabha last year and also lost the Junagadh corporation polls. Recently, the Congress’ student wing National Student Union of India lost the Gujarat University senate elections to the BJP’s student counterpart Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
Cautioning the party to not take the people for granted, the former Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela said from Gandhinagar to Delhi the people had realised their misconceptions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurances.
