Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday met with party leaders from Gujarat to discuss organisational issues, including the selection of a new Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief in the State, ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.
The delegation Mr. Gandhi met included the Congress’ Gujarat unit’s working president Hardik Patel, and Jignesh Mevani, Amit Chavda, Shaktisinh Gohil, Paresh Dhanani, Arjun Modhwadia and Amee Yajnik, among others. For the post of the Gujarat PCC chief, Mr. Patel and Mr. Gohil are said to be among the top contenders.
There was no official word on what transpired even though the Congress released pictures of the meeting.
Sources said that the former Congress chief urged his colleagues to get ready for next year’s Assembly polls that will take place towards the end of 2022.
Mr. Gandhi is said to also have individually sought the views of party leaders on the appointment of the next PCC chief as well as the Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly.
Following the poor performance in bypolls as well as local body polls, Mr. Chavda had resigned as the State PCC chief, and Mr. Dhanani, who was also the Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, had stepped down from the Congress Legislature Party leadership.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, and the newly appointed AICC in-charge for Gujarat, Raghu Sharma, were also present during the meeting.
The Congress leaders are said to have discussed a roadmap for the Assembly elections in the meeting to take on the State government, which has been completely revamped in the wake of reports that the erstwhile Vijay Rupani government had “mishandled” the second wave of COVID-19 in the State.