Shankersinh Vaghela set to head Gujarat Congress campaign

New Delhi: With the Gujarat Assembly elections approaching, the Congress high command is all set to appoint former state chief minister and senior party leader, Mr Shankaersinh Vaghela, as chairman of the campaign committee. Though speculations were rife that Mr Vaghela could be projected as the Congress’ chief ministerial candidate, party insiders claimed that Congress vice-president Mr Rahul Gandhi was “not  inclined” to announce a face for the elections.

Mr Gandhi on Saturday held a meeting of Gujarat leaders in the national capital to resolve the ongoing infighting within the Gujarat state unit. The meeting was attended by  general secretary incharge Ashok Gehlot, Ahmed Patel, Shankarsinh Vaghela, Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Arjun Modhwadia, Shaktising Gohil among others.

It may recalled that the Gujarat state unit was hit by four warring factions led by Shankersinh Vagehla, Bharatsinh Solanki, Shakti Singh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia.

The meeting was held by Mr Gandhi to settle the differences and evolve a consensus in the working of the Gujarat Congress and also to have a consensus on the campaign committee chief.

While the Congress high command was trying to resolve the raging factionalism within the outfit, the state unit received another blow recently with a large number of its of its minority cell members joining the BJP. While the state BJP claimed that the nearly 2,000 memebrs of Congress’ Gujarat Muslim cell joined the saffron camp, the Congress state leaders maintained that the “BJP was coming out with misleading report to demoralise the Congress.” However, in its fight against the BJP, the Congress had kick started its election campaign on May 1 with Mr Gandhi holding a public rally in Narmada district.