New Delhi:Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has deployed Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot to review strategy for the coming Gujarat assembly polls along with senior leaders on August 4.
According to party insiders, the deployment of a veteran and powerful politician like Gehlot is being done to send a positive and reassuring message to both the influential sections as well as the common voters, who have been missing the presence of Ahmed Patel, who passed away due to Covid in 2020. Patel, a former close aide of Sonia Gandhi, used to play an anchor role for the Congress across the country and particularly in Gujarat, his home state.
Gehlot, a dyed-in-the-wool Congressman, is now stepping in to fill in the void left by Patel and will deliver a positive message to the voters in the western state after reviewing strategy for the coming assembly polls along with a battery of party leaders who have been posted to wrest Gujarat from the BJP. “It helps if there is a big face from the party assuring the voters. Earlier, Ahmed Bhai used to play that role. We hope Gehlotji will fill in that gap,” former state unit chief Amit Chavda told ETV Bharat.
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To gain ground and win is a major challenge for Congress since the BJP has been in power in the state for the past 27 years but the 2022 polls also present an opportunity as the ruling party faces a massive anti-incumbency this time. Accordingly, Gehlot is expected to hold marathon brainstorming sessions with the 26 AICC observers for each of the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, 182 AICC observers for all the 182 assembly constituencies, AICC in-charge Raghu Sharma, state unit chief Jagdish Thakor, party MLAs and the senior leaders on Thursday.
Party insiders said that earlier Ahmed Patel’s presence was an assurance to the big businesses in the state that the Congress policies will protect their interests as Gujarat is known for its entrepreneurial spirit. In the 2017 assembly polls, Patel had played a key role in taking the Congress close to the halfway mark of 92 in the 182-member House. The opposition party got 77 seats against 99 of the BJP.
“We were close to forming the government but could not do so due to faulty ticket distribution in some seats and lack of effective booth management in the others,” said a Congress strategist. Keeping that in mind, Gehlot is expected to stress on a positive campaign and not to let the BJP convert it into a PM Modi-centric election, the party insiders said.
Gehlot, who has been taking on the Centre over recent ED summons to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, is also expected to deliver a strong message to the ruling party to charge up the Congress ranks, said the sources, adding that the Rajasthan chief minister is also expected to review preparations to tone up the state organisation.
