Congress to field all 57 MLAs in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: The Congress in Gujarat will field all its 57 sitting MLAs in elections scheduled later this year, including veteran leader Shankersinh Vaghela and his legislator son Mahendrasinh.

However, the announcement earlier this week aimed at keeping the ruling BJP at bay from poaching its legislators, has brought little cheer to Vaghela.

Aides of the former chief minister say he continues to sulk. Miffed at not being projected as the chief ministerial candidate, Vaghela, who made his displeasure with the party high command known last month by ‘unfollowing’ leaders such as Rahul Gandhi on micro-blogging site Twitter, is reportedly seeing the announcement as yet another attempt to curb his influence within the Congress.

Fielding all sitting legislators means Vaghela will have lesser say in distribution of party tickets for elections to the assembly.Once a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vaghela has kept local Congressmen guessing since he met BJP president Amit Shah in Ahmedabad in March.

There have been persistent speculations that he might walk out with loyalist legislators to go back to the BJP which he had left in the 1990s.

Vaghela has denied any such move, but rumours about his future have not died down.

The Congress leadership is also attempting to assuage his feelings. State Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki and party in-charge for the state Ashok Gehlot have been meeting Vaghela at his residence from time to time.

The Congress believes it has a great chance to wrest power from the BJP that has ruled the state for 22 years.

The opposition party is, therefore, trying to keep its house in order.

As the first step, Solanki has announced that appointments to all key party committees, both in districts and cities, will be made soon.