On Saturday, one such meeting was held in state Congress headquarters to evaluate the accomplishments of the various observers and district presidents who were earlier assigned responsibilities to identify local issues and potential candidates, etc for the civic polls. Over 72 municipalities are scheduled to go for polls early next year.
The party managed to stop BJP from staging a hatrick of whitewash in the parliamentary elections in the state earlier this year, scoring one out of twenty-six with Geniben Thakore winning from Banaskantha constituency.
At least three Congress MLAs, including former Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Arjun Modvadia had switched over to BJP this year, and the party also lost the Vav by-election to the BJP pushing its tally to 162 out of 182 seats in the assembly.
Insiders maintain that for Congress in Gujarat, this is now a fight to retain its relevance. The state leadership has decided to complete the skill training camps in all municipal areas before the elections.
Suggestions for candidate selection at the local level have also been sought from local leaders, apart from assigning specific responsibilities to local leaders for the celebration of the Congress party’s foundation day on December 28 across all municipalities.The party is also expected to hold local three-day level meetings across all municipalities, district Panchayats and Junagarh Municipal corporations from December 20 to 22.
