Congress names 40 district, city unit chiefs for Gujarat

After a process that lasted more than two months and saw senior Congress leaders visit 26 Lok Sabha constituencies, 182 Assembly segments, and 235 Blocks, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Saturday appointed 40 chiefs of district and city units for Gujarat under the the 'Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan' — a pilot project intended to empower the district units.
The list saw only one woman leader, Sonal Patel, who will head the Ahmedabad City unit. Patel, a former vice president of the Congress Mahila Morcha was the candidate against Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the 2024 LS polls from Gandhinagar constituency. She replaces former mayor and ex-MLA Himmatsinh Patel. 'Ahmedabad city president is a position that carries a lot of weight,' said a Congress leader.
At least five of the DCC presidents were repeated — Rutvij Joshi (Vadodara city), Jashpalsinh Padhiyar (Vadodara district), Naushad Solanki (Surendranagar), Pratap Dudhat (Amreli), and Rajendrasinh Rana (Bharuch city).
The party said the newly appointed DCC chiefs 'represent Gujarat's social and regional diversity and have been chosen for their grassroots connection, ideological clarity, and organisational ability'.
At the AICC Session on April 9-10 in Gujarat, held in the state for the first time in about 60 years, district units were identified as key building blocks to build the Congress back-up. While this is a nationwide project, the Congress launched the pilot from Gujarat, a state where the party has been out of power now for 30 years and which is identified most closely with the BJP's rise post-Modi.
The party on April 12 appointed 43 AICC and 183 PCC observers comprising senior leaders, including state in-charges, MPs, MLAs, and former PCC presidents, to oversee the appointments and make recommendations to the party high command.
A statement issued on Saturday night by Congress general secretary in-charge (organisation) K C Venugopal said: 'The Abhiyan, launched to revitalise the party structure from booth to district level, focused on transparent, inclusive, and ideology-based leadership selection.'
– With inputs from ENS Ahmedabad
Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express.
During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state.
During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute.
Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor.
Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More

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