Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil resigned from his position within hours of the results of the by-elections to two assembly seats declared on Monday, taking moral responsibility for the party’s defeat in both constituencies.
His resignation comes in the wake of appointments of the party’s district and city presidents in Gujarat last week, after a much-hyped “rigorous process”.
Gohil dismissed speculation in some quarters that his resignation might be linked to these appointments more than the by-election results. “Even on Sunday I travelled across three districts in North Gujarat welcoming the new district presidents. I wouldn’t have laboured so much if I were unhappy with the list,” he told ET, adding that his resignation stemmed from a sense of moral responsibility for the disastrous performance of the party in the two seats.
Although Gohil took moral responsibility for the defeats, the Congress was never expected to win these seats, said senior party workers. The pilot project of revamping the party structure, mooted by party leader Rahul Gandhi from several public platforms including the All India Congress Committee session in Ahmedabad early this year, seems to have served old wine in old bottles, they said.
“After all the hoopla, this set of appointments is disappointing,” said a senior party worker, who did not wish to be identified. “In many districts, erstwhile district presidents have been brought back, while in some the appointee wasn’t even recommended.”
The person further said, “For example, in Rajkot, they brought back Ritesh Vora, who was the president before Lalit Vasoya, the incumbent president. Similarly, in Bhavnagar, they brought back Pravin Rathore, who was the president before the incumbent, Rajendra Sinh. In Kutch, VK Humble, who had been the district president five years back, has been brought back. There are plenty of repeats including in places like Surendranagar, Vadodara, Amreli and Junagadh City, so where are the new faces that one expected?”
A senior Congress leader, from Saurashtra said, “Not all the appointments are bad, but the process doesn’t seem to have envisioned Mission 2027 and failed to take care of social engineering in several places. The time-bound process appears to have been done in a hurry and hasn’t done much to lift the morale of the workers.”
The fact that the Congress in Gujarat is far from getting combative on the ground was evident in the run-up to the Visavadar by-election as well. “There were 40 star campaigners in the list while more than 25 never campaigned there even once, and those who went only visited the seat,” said a party functionary. On the contrary, he said, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) invested heavily in the campaign and its national leaders including Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Singh Mann and Atishi campaigned for Gopal Italia.
“The results of Visavadar (where Italia defeated the BJP candidate by more than 17,000 votes) also indicate a grave issue that the Congress is facing,” said another leader. “While the party is focusing on the minority and SC (Scheduled Caste) voters in a big way, there are about 27,000-30,000 minority and SC voters in that constituency. Despite the Dalit face of the party, Jignesh Mevani, as well as Muslim leaders like Imran Khedawala and Gyasuddin Sheikh campaigning there, we could hardly manage 500 votes from that segment.”
The leader further said, “Jignesh Mevani, the working president, held a major Dalit sammelan in Mota Gadhada village, where people were brought in, and when the ballot boxes opened, we got only 35 votes in that village.”
Gohil had earlier indicated that the Congress would not change its state president until the 2027 assembly election, but with his resignation he created the space for the party to make fresh appointments, said one of the persons cited earlier.
His resignation comes in the wake of appointments of the party’s district and city presidents in Gujarat last week, after a much-hyped “rigorous process”.
Gohil dismissed speculation in some quarters that his resignation might be linked to these appointments more than the by-election results. “Even on Sunday I travelled across three districts in North Gujarat welcoming the new district presidents. I wouldn’t have laboured so much if I were unhappy with the list,” he told ET, adding that his resignation stemmed from a sense of moral responsibility for the disastrous performance of the party in the two seats.
Although Gohil took moral responsibility for the defeats, the Congress was never expected to win these seats, said senior party workers. The pilot project of revamping the party structure, mooted by party leader Rahul Gandhi from several public platforms including the All India Congress Committee session in Ahmedabad early this year, seems to have served old wine in old bottles, they said.
“After all the hoopla, this set of appointments is disappointing,” said a senior party worker, who did not wish to be identified. “In many districts, erstwhile district presidents have been brought back, while in some the appointee wasn’t even recommended.”
The person further said, “For example, in Rajkot, they brought back Ritesh Vora, who was the president before Lalit Vasoya, the incumbent president. Similarly, in Bhavnagar, they brought back Pravin Rathore, who was the president before the incumbent, Rajendra Sinh. In Kutch, VK Humble, who had been the district president five years back, has been brought back. There are plenty of repeats including in places like Surendranagar, Vadodara, Amreli and Junagadh City, so where are the new faces that one expected?”
A senior Congress leader, from Saurashtra said, “Not all the appointments are bad, but the process doesn’t seem to have envisioned Mission 2027 and failed to take care of social engineering in several places. The time-bound process appears to have been done in a hurry and hasn’t done much to lift the morale of the workers.”
The fact that the Congress in Gujarat is far from getting combative on the ground was evident in the run-up to the Visavadar by-election as well. “There were 40 star campaigners in the list while more than 25 never campaigned there even once, and those who went only visited the seat,” said a party functionary. On the contrary, he said, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) invested heavily in the campaign and its national leaders including Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Singh Mann and Atishi campaigned for Gopal Italia.
“The results of Visavadar (where Italia defeated the BJP candidate by more than 17,000 votes) also indicate a grave issue that the Congress is facing,” said another leader. “While the party is focusing on the minority and SC (Scheduled Caste) voters in a big way, there are about 27,000-30,000 minority and SC voters in that constituency. Despite the Dalit face of the party, Jignesh Mevani, as well as Muslim leaders like Imran Khedawala and Gyasuddin Sheikh campaigning there, we could hardly manage 500 votes from that segment.”
The leader further said, “Jignesh Mevani, the working president, held a major Dalit sammelan in Mota Gadhada village, where people were brought in, and when the ballot boxes opened, we got only 35 votes in that village.”
Gohil had earlier indicated that the Congress would not change its state president until the 2027 assembly election, but with his resignation he created the space for the party to make fresh appointments, said one of the persons cited earlier.
