Gujarat: Congress Veteran Shaktisinh Gohil Appointed State President

Ahmedabad: Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat and a national Congress spokesperson Shaktisingh Gohil has been appointed the party’s State president to lead a moribund and directionless apparatus in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

A former minister, Gohil had ensured Congress veteran Ahmed Patel’s tough Rajya Sabha victory from Gujarat by one vote by catching a BJP MLA’s gaffe while polling for the seat in 2017.  

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal announced the decision to appoint Gohil along with changes in Mumbai and Puducherry. Legislator Varsha Gaikwad was appointed as Mumbai Congress president and V Vaithilingam was appointed as Puducherry Congress chief.

“The party appreciates the contributions of the outgoing PCC PCC/RCC presidents Shri Jagdish Thakor (Gujarat), Shri AV Subramanian (Puducherry) and Shri Bhai Jagtap (Mumbai),” Venugopal said. Gohil, who was the AICC in-charge of Haryana and Delhi, has been replaced by Deepak Babariya, also from Gujarat.

OBC leader Jagdish Thakor quit as state chief in 2021 after drubbing

Jagdish Thakor, a senior OBC leader who was made the Gujarat Congress president in 2021, had offered to resign after the party’s poor performance in the 2022 assembly elections in Gujarat when the party posted its lowest-ever score of 17 out of 182 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 156 seats and AAP five.

The announcement came on Friday after a long meeting of the party’s State leaders with the high command in Delhi to chalk out strategies for the Lok Sabha polls on Thursday.

Among those from Gujarat present at the meeting were Arjun Modhwadia, Shaktisinh Gohil, Amit Chavda, Shailesh Parmar, Siddharth Patel, Lalji Desai, C J Chavda and Deepak Babaria.