Congress set to undergo leadership changes

NEW DELHI: Three weeks after it was mauled by the Narendra Modi-led BJP, the Gujarat Congress is set to undergo leadership changes, as the AICC plans to make state party leaders accountable for the defeat and prop up a new line of leadership.

Congress legislature party leader Arjun Modhvadia will be removed in immediately and state PCC chief Bharatsinh Solanki could be next in the firing line.

Party sources here said the Congress legislature party meeting slated for Wednesday in Ahmedabad could signal the beginning of changes in the state leadership. Though Mr Modhvadia has made his desire known to continue in the post, AICC sources see remote chances of he surviving the purge.

Three leaders have been short-listed to succeed him and four-term MLA and former youth Congress state chief Shakti Singh Gohil is the front-runner. Two others in the race are former PCC chief, and son of Chimanbhai Patel, Sidharth Patel and senior tribal leader Mahantesh Ratwa.

A couple of representatives of the high command will be present at the CLP meeting to oversee the change of guard. There have been allegations that Mr Modhvadia was not very effective in targeting the Modi government in the last assembly and therefore the demand for a ‘more popular and dynamic Opposition leader’.

The change of CLP leader could also mean PCC chief Solanki is equally vulnerable. Though he is among the young and energetic state Congress leaders, the electoral defeat has triggered a campaign from within for his removal.

Detractors feel Mr Solanki and his team failed to read the under-currents during a campaign in which the entire high command had participated in a big way. At the height of the election campaign, Mr Solanki was also caught in a CD controversy.

The Solanki group was also at loggerheads with the faction of Shankarsinh Vaghela. In the event of the party getting a CLP leader from the Rajput community, Mr Solanki, a Lok Sabha member, may find himself soon being replaced by a tribal leader or one from the Patel community.

To cement the move to change the leadership of the poll-routed state, party sources point out that both CLP and PCC leaders of Himachal Pradesh had been replaced after the recent Congress defeat there.

Incidentally, the recently-constituted Congress committee to look into ‘future challenges’ has been advocating the need to fix responsibility on PCCs in case of electoral reverses.