NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, JULY 5
Days after the ruling BJP had appointed two in-charges each for the eight Assembly seats that will face by-polls, the main Opposition Congress has appointed senior leaders as in-charges for the same, says a release issued by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) on Friday.
According to the list, senior leaders Arjun Modhwadia, Siddarth Patel, Tushar Chaudhari, Jagdish Thakor, Shailesh Parmar, Gaurav Pandya, Punjabhai Vansh and C J Chavda will be in-charges for Morbi, Karjan in Vadodara, Kaprada in Valsad, Limbadi in Surendranagar, Gadhda in Botad, Dang, Dhari in Amreli and Abdasa in Kutch, respectively.
The by-elections for the eight vacant seats are expected to be held between September and October this year. Incidentally, all the seats fell vacant following the resignation of Congress MLAs ahead of the high-stake Rajya Sabha polls.
As a result of these resignations, the ruling BJP had won three RS seats while the Congress candidate Shaktisinh Gohil was the lone winner or the party.
According to GPCC officials, all eight senior leaders will be in direct touch with Rajeev Satav, Rajya Sabha MP and Gujarat Congress in-charge and Amit Chavda, president of GPCC. The leaders will not only connect with the booth level workers to check the situation on ground but also keep caste dynamics in mind as out of eight seats, two of Dang and Kaprada in Valsad are reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates and Gadhda in Botad reserved for Scheduled Caste community.
“Although the dates of by-elections have not been announced and list of candidates will be released much later, we have already started our preparations in these eight constituencies where we will get in constant touch with the frontal organisations associated with Congress along with booth-level committees and administrative rings. We will also have to check the performance of workers in these areas, their popularity among masses, caste and geography dynamic, and a sense of the ground reality to look for favourable candidates. The in-charge leaders will be in direct touch with Rajeev Satav and Amit Chavda,” said an official of GPCC.
The Gujarat Congress said that for the upcoming by-elections,the party intends to highlight the issues of inflation, farmers’ crisis and alleged failure of BJP-led state government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
