Jagdish Thakor takes over as Gujarat Congress president

He rules out differences among top leaders, says party united

Jagdish Thakor on Monday took over as the Gujarat Congress president while exhorting party workers to work for the Assembly polls to be held in December 2022 to bring the party back to power after 25 years.

Mr. Thakor said that the party would work unitedly to achieve victory by dislodging the ruling BJP, which has been in power since 1998, winning five Assembly polls in a row. “I ask every Congress worker to forget everything and work for the party for 12 months from now. We have got adequate time and favourable circumstances to ensure our victory at the Assembly polls,” he said.

OBC face

Mr. Thakor ruled out differences among its top leaders and stressed that the party’s state unit was united against the ruling party.

Former Parliamentarian and legislator Jagdish Thakor, a prominent OBC face, was appointed the Gujarat Congress chief by the party president in place of Amit Chavda, who had resigned from the post following debacle in the local municipal and panchayats elections earlier this year.

Mr. Thakor belongs to the numerically significant Thakor community, which wields considerable influence in north and central Gujarat regions.

On Monday, he told the party workers that the BJP was worried about the next Assembly polls in the State and had sacked its entire Cabinet, including the Chief Minister and his Deputy in September this year.

“If all was well with the ruling party, they would not have replaced the entire Cabinet, including its CM,” he said.

The party’s newly appointed legislature party leader Sukhram Rathwa, a four time tribal MLA from Central Gujarat, also took over and slammed the ruling party for lack of development on tribal areas despite its being in power for more than 25 years.

Mr. Rathwa has been appointed in place of Paresh Dhanani, a Patidar leader from Saurashtra region.

According to sources, the party high command would soon approve the appointments of other leaders to be office bearers in the State unit.

On Monday, thousands of party workers gathered in a rally to welcome Mr. Thakor and Mr. Rathwa at the party office in Ahmedabad.