Cong plays tribal card in polarised Guj

By Venkatesh Kesari | NT

New Delhi: The Congress party played the OBC card on Friday, to check the BJP’s strong Patel plank by appointing Jagdish Thakor as the President of the Gujarat Congress, calculating that bringing OBCs (25 percent) and Adivasis (15 per cent) together would be an effective combination in the ensuing assembly polls against the ruling BJP in the heart of Modi land.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced the appointment of Jagdish Thakor, a prominent OBC leader, as the president of the Gujarat Congress while speculation is rife in Congress circles that an Adivasi, a tribal could be made the Leader of the Congress Legislature party.

While the state Congress leaders are happy with the appointment of Thakor, an ‘organisation’ man, they feared that he would not get much time to revive the party as he has less than a year to face the electoral challenge,

While Thakor is from north Gujarat, a new CLP leader is expected from Saurashtra .If the new team succeeds in bringing seniors and juniors in the party together then it would be a serious fight against the BJP and the AAP. But a section of the AICC is promoting its own interest and building its own team, critics said, adding that this would be counter-productive.

It will be interesting to watch whether AICC managers will involve the followers of late Ahmed Patel in this battle. They are all resourceful and any attempt to marginalise them could damage the Congress, say insiders. Besides, the high command has to decide on what role senior leaders like Bharat Solanki, Siddharth Patel, Shaktisinh Gohil, Arjun Modhwadia, Naresh Rawal, Rajubhai Parmar will play, going forward.

The current mood in the AICC is to sideline seniors but this would not help, sources said. Deepak Babaria was in the race for the Gujarat Congress president while Hardik Patel too was ambitious. But making a Patel the state Congress chief would not help the party as the chief minister is from the Patel community. But the BJP too is divided with the recent change of guard in the government and sidelining of senior leaders adding fuel to the fire. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is yet to prove his mettle.

A former Congress MP and a senior Gujarat Congress leader feared that the elections could also be advanced if the BJP performs well in the Sarpanch elections due this month.

Though the BJP is facing anti-incumbency and the factional fights, in the state ,the Congress could get mileage out of it only if it is strong organisationally.