Gandhinagar:Around three dozen MLAs of Gujarat Congress today gathered at Leader of Opposition Shankersinh Vaghela’s bungalow ‘Vasant Vagdo’ in Gandhinagar in which State party incharge Gurudas Kamat was called for hearing.

Kamat who was in Gujarat today came to Shankersinh’s bungalow in the evening. The meeting at Shankersinh’s bungalow went on for two and half hours.

Interestingly State party president Bharatsinh Solanki was absent in this meeting.

Kamat in his briefing outside Shankersinh’s bungalow said, the issues such as election preparedness, selection of candidates, status of sitting MLAs, organizational coordination were discussed.

Kamat said BJP is luring Congress MLAs, but all Congress MLAs have ensured that they would stay in Congress only and work for party’s victory.

Kamat said MLAs were of opinion that candidates should be decided much earlier. The application process for selection of candidates has been completed by December-end. Even panel making process is over. Now AICC screening committee will seat for final decision on candidates.

When asked whether MLAs demanded Shankersinh’s leadership during election, Kamat said many MLAs demanded that party should go under one leader to election in Gujarat and many of them also said that party should go under the leadership of Shankersinh Vaghela. Kamat said he would go to Delhi tomorrow and in next two-three days he would convey whatever he gathered in this meeting to party leadership.

When asked whether party would select one leader as Chief Ministerial face while going to election in Gujarat, Kamat said he had no power to take any decision in this regard, and such decision would be taken only by party’s national president (Sonia Gandhi) or vice president(Rahul Gandhi).

When asked further whether party would select one leader as CM face, Kamat said, ‘when we discussed on this topic we discussed Punjab where Congress had selected CM candidate before election, but we also discussed Uttar Pradesh where BJP had not declared CM candidate. A decision on whether to make some leader CM face will be taken by party president and vice president.’

When asked about State party president Bharatsinh Solanki’s absence in today’s meeting, Kamat said Bharatsinh was in America from where he arrived today only and Shankersinh had conveyed him about today’s meeting through SMS.

In today’s meeting not just Shankersinh Vaghela’s close supporters but old Congress loyalists such as Ramsinh Parmar, Mohansinh Rathwa etc were also present.

It is not secret that Leader of Opposition Shankersinh Vaghela is showing desperation to grab the last chance to become Chief Minister of Gujarat as he is already 76. Shankersinh wants free-hand and position of Chief Ministerial face of Congress in upcoming Gujarat assembly elections likely to take place in December this year. Shankersinh today took one step further and gathered MLAs in his support to convey a message to party high-command. Apart from Shankersinh, State party president Bharatsinh Solanki is also believed contender for Chief Ministerial candidate positioning. One group in Gujarat Congress believes that at this juncture party can increase its seats only by adding huge number of Patidar votes and for that party should either project Patidar face as Chief Ministerial candidate or should do away with declaring any person as CM face. Another issue with Shankersinh is that he belongs to RSS/BJP background and therefore doesn’t enjoy full trust of some key original Congressmen. In 2009 Shankersinh was about to rejoin BJP as per his own admission in Indian Express interview. In 2011 he was about to join NCP for which he had also held talks with Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel. Shankersinh was later placated with Director’s post in National Tourism Corporation which was matching to ministerial status in the Centre. State Congress had lost elections in the past when Shankersinh was State Congress president and campaign committee chairman. Speculations are rife that if Shankersinh’s demand for free-hand in election and CM candidate positioning are not accepted by party, possibilities can not be denied that he or his son or both may take surprise decision at appropriate time.

Deshgujarat