Top heads may roll, local workers to get more say in Gujarat Congress

GANDHINAGAR: Decimation is complete. It is now a long struggle for relevance. Startled by the unexpected rout in the LS polls, the Congress in Gujarat is now looking at a slew of measures to revive its stock.

The All India Congress Committee will make a decision on any structural changes required in the state leadership, Gujarat Congress President Arjun Modvadia said. "We are expecting it to happen around June 15." "At our end, we shall organise our Chintan Baithaks (brainstorming sessions) and go back to the grassroots level," he added.

Modvadia’s response, however, sparsely betrays the upheaval that the party is facing in Gujarat. The Congress hasn’t won even a single seat in Gujarat and has also seen serious erosion of its grip along assembly constituencies. Out of the 182 constituencies that constitute the 26 Lok Sabha seats from the state, the party could come on top only in 17 in the just-concluded elections.

While heavyweights like Bharatsinh Solanki, Dinsha Patel and Tushar Chaudhry have lost in the Lok Sabha elections, almost all state leaders like Modvadia, Shaktisinh Gohil and Siddharth Patel were trounced by BJP candidates in the 2012 assembly polls, leaving Shankarsinh Vaghela as the lone standing strongman. Vaghela too had to bite the dust in Sabarkantha in the Lok Sabha election.

For the records, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had in a media interaction in Ahmedabad last year candidly admitted that fratricidal factionalism was the greatest malady plaguing Gujarat Congress and later had gone on to say that a surgical intervention may be necessary to set the house in order. It is more than expected that the Congress leadership may finally opt for some "surgical intervention" after this complete rout.

According to a source in the party, several senior leaders may have to relinquish their positions, including Modvadia whose three-year term is nearing completion.