All India Congress Committee (AICC) incharge of Gujarat Raghu Sharma on Thursday announced a seven-member committee to suggest changes in the party’s organization at lower levels and said that it will activate 13.5 lakh workers for 52,000 booths for the state Assembly election.
Addressing the Congress’ Chintan Shivir for Saurashtra zone in Rajkot on Thursday, Sharma announced formation of a committee to strengthen the party-organization at grassroots levels.
Referring to decisions taken by Congress’ Chitan Shivir in Udaipur, Sharma announced a committee comprising three AICC secretaries in-charge of Gujarat, former Gujarat Congress Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Chavda, former Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly, Paresh Dhanani, GPCC general secretary Indravijaysinh Gohil and GPCC vice-president and retired IPS officer Kuldeep Sharma.
Virendra Singh Rathore, BM Sandeep, and Ramkishan Ojha are the AICC secretaries in-charge of various zones of Gujarat.
“There are 248 talukas in Gujarat and this seven-member committees will suggest how to form mandal-level units of the party. This committee will give its report in seven days, and suggest if we should take districts as a unit and as to what should form a mandal in cities.
One month after, there will be no taluka in Gujarat without our unit. Once they submit the report, we will give you the number of mandals and their chief,” said Sharma while addressing party leaders and workers at the Chintan Shivir.
Sharma also said that the party is targeting to win more than 125 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections.
“This meeting of the Saurashtra Zone was attended by MLAs, district unit presidents and senior party leaders of the state and the region. The party has set a target of forming the next government by winning over 125 seats” Sharma told reporters.
Around 1,200 delegates from various parts of Saurashtra attended the one-day Chintan Shivir held at Hemu Gadhvi Hall in the city.
Sharma said that from August 2 to August 15, Congress will take out yatras in each district of Gujarat. He also said that similar zonal chintan shibirs will be organized in north, central and south Gujarat regions of the state.
Sharma also exhorted party leaders and workers to focus on boot-level outreach activities to win people’s support for the Assembly elections.
Addressing the shivir, Dhanani expressed concern over what he called growing influence of RCC in his native district of Amreli. “We all know that RSS’s laboratory is Rajkot but Amreli is also now becoming the laboratory of the RSS. The prant pracharaks of RSS for Gujarat’s two zones, Gujarat and Saurashtra, had always had some connection with Amreli,” said Dhanani.
Dhanani also suggested that instead of the usual practice of top-down model of party organisation, Congress adopt form an organization based on bottom-up principle. Former GPCC presidents Chavda, Bharatsinh Solanki, Arjun Modwadia, AICC social-media in-charge Rohan Gupta, AICC secretary in-charge of Saurashtra, Ramkishan Oza also addressed the shivir.
(With inputs from PTI)
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