Within hours of declaration of results of Kadi and Visavadar by-election on Monday, in which the Congress drew a blank, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Shaktisinh Gohil resigned from the office, accepting “moral responsibility” for the defeat.
He handed over the charge to senior party leader Shailesh Parmar, announcing that the Danilimda MLA would hold the post till the All India Congress Committee (AICC) declared a new name.
Announcing his resignation at a press conference, Gohil, also a Rajya Sabha member, said, “Things would have been different if the Congress had won at least one seat, like Kadi.”
Gohil’s resignation came two days after the party, in its most ambitious exercise to revamp the district units, announced names of new presidents of 40 of 44 District Congress Committee (DCC) units.
Referring to “talks” about the new presidents not being aligned with him, Gohil said, “Some people are saying that the presidents appointed are not compatible with Shaktisinh …whatever is compatible with the party is compatible to me.”
Hours after he sent his resignation to party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Gohil relinquished the charge to Parmar, stating he would not wait for the party’s decision in the matter.
He compared the situation to one in 1994 when he had resigned in a similar manner from the post of state health minister over a demand for a medical college in Bhavnagar not being met.
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Gohil wrote on X: “In true spirit of our Congress Party and its glorious tradition, I have accepted moral responsibility and have resigned as Gujarat Congress President…. I believe that our party is more important than any position or individual. I will, of course, continue to remain a disciplined soldier of Congress. Always.”
He wrote: “I have worked hard and always endeavoured to (do) and give the best to our party. Unfortunately, we have not succeeded today. We have lost the Visavadar and Kadi bypolls.”
He said, “Mentoring by Rajivji (former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi) & Soniaji has been the biggest ever blessing in my life that has shaped me as a person and public servant and I will always remain grateful to them.”
He also wrote about the recent exercise to revamp the party’s district and city units. “I am thankful to the Congress that launched the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan as a pilot programme from Gujarat; senior leaders heard out workers and after that, 40 presidents of districts were announced with which majorly workers are happy, barring a few. There can be an error in judgement and it is difficult to make everyone happy. These appointments are not final but every performance would be monitored and reviewed every three months and there is scope for rectification too,” Gohil stated.
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The Congress district presidents have accepted this change and welcomed the new incumbents as you might have seen in the case of Himmatsinhbhai Patel, he added.
Patel is the outgoing Ahmedabad City unit chief of the party.
Ahead of the 2024 general election, Gohil was appointed GPCC president in June 2023. In 2014, Gohil was appointed the National Spokesperson of the AICC.
Before that, he served as Minister of Finance, Health and Education, among others, from 1991 to 1995. He was also the Leader of Opposition from 2007 to 2012.
