Bharatsinh Solanki appointed new Gujarat Congress chief
As part of the major reshuffle, Congress named Solanki and five others as unit presidents ahead of next month’s crucial AICC session
Ahmedabad: Former Union minister Bharatsinh Solanki was on Monday appointed the new president of Gujarat Congress by the All India Congress Committee. He took charge from Arjun Modhwadia.
As part of the major reshuffle, Congress named Solanki and five others as unit presidents ahead of next month’s crucial AICC session, which might assign a larger role for party vice-president Rahul Gandhi. This might include his possible elevation as party president.
Modhwadia had resigned soon after the party’s poor performance in the 2012 state assembly elections but he was asked to continue till the May 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Congress was handed a crushing defeat by the BJP in the parliamentary polls too, with Solanki himself losing from the Anand Lok Sabha constituency.
Solanki, 62, is son of former Gujarat chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki, who was also a Union minister.
Having served earlier also as Gujarat Congress president, Bharatsinh Solanki was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 and again in 2009 when he was made Union minister of state for power, railways (independent charge), drinking water and sanitation.
Besides Solanki, former Union minister Ajay Maken has been made chief of the party’s unit in Delhi while former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan is the new president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.
AICC secretary Sanjay Nirupam will be the president of Mumbai Regional Congress Committe. Uttam Reddy will head the unit in Telangana and former state minister Ghulam Ahmed Mir in Jammu & Kashmir.
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