Shaktisinh Gohil, new chief of Gujarat Congress, faces tough challenges ahead of 2024 LS polls

Gohil succeeds Jagdish Thakor under whom Congress put up a dismal show

ITDC INIDA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS:  Quite often Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, Shaktisinh Gohil, has been seen presenting crucial details with facts and figures in the Upper House on matters of national importance. On most occasions, the details are unpleasant for the ruling party.

Now, with the appointment of Gohil as the Gujarat Congress president, he is expected to not only put his party in order, but also challenge the ruling BJP that is getting mightier in Gujarat with every passing year.

Sixty-three-year-old Gohil, a lawyer, succeeds Jagdish Thakor under whom the Congress put up a dismal show in December 2022 assembly elections. The party could only secure 17 out of the 182 assembly seats in Gujarat and lost the position of opposition leader in the assembly.

Gohil’s appointment as the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chairman comes at a time when parties are actively gearing up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

While at the organisational level Gohil’s challenge will be to infuse confidence among the party’s foot soldiers, on the electoral front he is expected to help the party put up a reasonable show in the Lok Sabha elections. Gujarat sends 26 MPs and the Congress has drawn a blank in the 2014 and 2019 elections. In the year when the opposition is trying to put up a united front, each seat will be crucial for both the BJP and the Congress.

The Congress has experimented by changing the state leadership time and again but the attempts have been futile. The BJP has been in power in this western Indian state for more than two and a half decades, of which Narendra Modi was the chief minister from 2001 to 2014, until he became the Prime Minister.

Except for missing out from coming back to power five years ago by a few seats and winning majority of the district and taluka level panchayats before that, the Congress show has been poor. This despite the fact that the party does take up issues. The problem, however, is that it is unable to convince the masses.