Correspondent, Ahmedabad: The absence of senior Congress leader, former Chief Minister and leader of opposition in Gujarat Assembly, Shankersinh Vaghela in a meeting held here in the party headquarters today on the day when the party high-command changed the in-charge of the state and his team, started the speculations about his being aggrieved from the party.

Though Vaghela, whose ‘now-on-and-now-off’ kind of stand on his being party candidate for CM’s post during the poll campaign has also given rise to many speculations, was not available for comments former state Congress President Arjun Modhwadia termed his absence a ‘normal’ affair.

‘The meeting was held regarding the training camps for booth committees. During this discussions regarding my save the coast trip (Kinara Bachao Yatra) also took place. This trip on boat to highlight the issues of fishermen and coastal areas will start from Mandvi in Kutch on May 3 and end in Umargaon of South Gujarat on May 14,’ he said.

He claimed that Vaghela’s absence in the meeting should not be analyzed as his being aggrieved. ‘Former state president Siddharth Patel was also not present today. Does it mean that he was also aggrieved,’ Modhwadia said.

The meeting was attended by state Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki and senior party MLA Shaktisinh Gohil among others.

Notably party president Sonia Gandhi today relieved Gujarat in-charge Gurudas Kamath from his responsibility and appointed former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot in his place.

Even as Vaghela camp’s different viewpoint on many issues in ‘faction-ridden’ Congress is an open secret, a meeting of some party MLA’s held at Vaghela’s residence sometime ago in Gandhinagar in which Kamath was also present and during which demands to project Vaghela as CM candidate was raised.

DeshGujarat