Ahmedabad:

All the 77 newly elected MLAs of Congress in Gujarat today formally ‘authorized’ party president Rahul Gandhi to take a final call about the selection of the leader of the legislature party and other related posts including Deputy leader and whip, state president of the party and former union minister Bharatsinh Solanki said.

After the first day of the two day meeting of the legislature party that started here today, Solanki told newsmen that former leader of opposition Mohansinh Rathwa put a propsal in the beginning of the meeting that Rahul Ji be authorized to take a final call in the selection of the leader of the legislature party and other related posts. The proposal was accepted with consensus.

He said that the meeting started today at 330pm and will continue tomorrow as well. All the MLAs were meeting Gujarat In-charge of the party and AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot and former union minister Jitendra Singh, who has been appointed the observer for the election of the leader of the legislature party in person to give their opinion. The exercise would continue tomorrow as well.

He said that apart from the selection procedure the party has also started the preparations for 2019 Loksabha polls and upcoming local body polls and would better its performance.

Before the start of the meeting Jitendra Singh said that he and Gehlot would take the opinion of all the MLAs not only about the selection of the leaders but about what could have been done to better the performance of the party in the recent assembly polls. Gehlot on the other hand said that the whole process would be held in amicable atmosphere.

Congress has increased the number of its seats from 61 of last time to 77 this time around and it also has four supporters, taking its total strength in 182 member assembly to 81 which practically would make the new leader of opposition, a post with cabinet minister rank status, a much more powerful figure in the house than the last one.

DeshGujarat