Ahmedabad:

The two day meeting of the 77 newly elected MLAs of Congress in Gujarat for selection of the leader of opposition concluded today and now the party high command would take a decision after going through the report to be submitted by Gujarat In-charge of the party and AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot and former union minister Jitendra Singh, under whose supervision the meeting was held at the party headquarters here.

Talking to newsmen after the conclusion of the meeting state president of the party and former union minister Bharatsinh Solanki said that the meeting has been over. Now the two central leaders would go to Delhi to hand over a report to the high command which would take a decision at the earliest. ‘The names will be announced as early as possible which might be tomorrow or day after tomorrow (5th evening or 6th morning).
He said that today the two leaders had talked to all the MLAs in person and taken their opinions not about the selection of leader but also about the upcoming local body polls and Loksabha election of 2019.

Solanki said that Congress has several good leaders to lead the legislature party and their names would be handed over to the high command by the two central leaders to take a final call.

To a query about PAAS leader Hardik Patel support for Amreli MLA of Patidar community Paresh Dhanani Solanki said that Hardikbhai can talk about his opinion. It was a matter of Congress party and its MLAs and all the MLAs have unanimously authorized party president Rahul Gandhi to take a final call on it. ‘The high command will take a call in a day or two,’ he said.

Before the start of the meeting yesterday Jitendra Singh had 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.

Meanwhile apart from the name of Dhanani, the other name for the coveted post was said to be that of Khedbrahma MLA of ST community Ashwin Kotwal who was said to be a pet choice of Solanki himself. Others prominent names in the race were last time leader of opposition Mohansinh Rathwa, OBC MLA and former MP Vikram Madam and Koli leader Kuwarji Babaria.

DeshGujarat