Newly-appointed Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil on Friday asserted the Opposition party will rise again under his leadership and reclaim its lost position with the blessings of people of the state, where the BJP has been in power for nearly three decades.
Gohil, a Rajya Sabha member, was appointed the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge earlier in the day.
The 63-year-old former state minister replaced Jagdish Thakor, who resigned after the party’s rout in the last Assembly elections in Gujarat held in December 2022.
“Taking everyone (in state Congress) together we will work with team spirit in Gujarat. I am a soldier of the party and whatever responsibility has been given to me by the party I have tried to fulfil it with dedication,” Gohil told PTI soon after he was given the new role.
“As far as the new responsibility is concerned, I will take along all (state leaders) and work hard with total dedication. I am confident the people of Gujarat will give blessings and support to the Congress, and the party will rise again with strength,” he said.
Gohil, a four-time former MLA, was a minister in the Congress government between 1992 and 95, and also served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. In June, 2020 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat and is a member of various committees of the Upper House of Parliament.
The Congress, once a formidable political force and ruling party of Gujarat for years, faced its worst defeat in the 2022 Assembly elections where it got just 17 out of the total 182 seats.
On the other hand, the ruling BJP bagged a staggering 156 seats, while the fledgling AAP, led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, notched up victory in five Assembly segments.
Jagdish Thakor had stepped down as the state Congress president after the heavy election defeat. The Congress hopes to put up a good show in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat, where it drew a blank in 2019, and as a part of its preparation, has taken up an exercise to revamp the state unit.
As per political observers, the Congress suffered badly in the Assembly elections due to the entry of the AAP, which secured a respectable vote share of around 13 per cent in the state, dividing Opposition votes.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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Updated: 09 Jun 2023, 10:58 PM IST