'Jagdish Thakor to be new Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president, Rathwa LOP'

Gandhinagar, Dec 2 (IANS) Sources in the Congress have signalled that former Member of Parliament Jagdish Thakor has been selected as the new president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), although an official announcement will be made on Friday. The Leader of Opposition Party (LOP) will be Sukhram Rathwa.

The president's post lay vacant after incumbent president Amit Chavda tendered his resignation following the 2017 state assembly elections. The LOP Paresh Dhanani had also quit though both the resignations were not accepted by the party high command in New Delhi.

Since quite some time, rumours were doing the rounds about the posts being filled up before Diwali, and thereafter post Diwali. But the posts continued to lie vacant and it seemed that the High Command was confused about the situation.

But according to sources in the grand old party, now the name of Jagdish Thakor has been finalised. The name for LOP has also been finalized according to sources, with Sukhram Rathwa replacing Dhanani.

Born on 1st July, 1957, Thakor's political journey began as a student leader when he joined the Navnirman Andolan as a teenager studying in a higher secondary school on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Later, by a stroke of destiny, Fulsinh, Congress candidate from Kapadvanj, refused to contest the election at the last moment giving Thakor a chance to fight the 1998 parliamentary elections. However, he lost to the BJP's Jaysinh Chauhan by around 39,000 votes.

However, he had strong backing from the Thakor community and his involvement in educational activities soon got him into the Gujarat Assembly from the Dehgam seat in 2002, even as the saffron wave swept the state. Thakor won the seat again in the 2007 assembly elections, but resigned after he won the Patan parliamentary seat in 2009.

The Congress high command has also chosen tribal leader Sukhram Rathwa, the legislator from the Chotta Udepur constituency, as the LOP.

"Yes the news about both the posts being filled by the party high command is true. The GPCC chief will be Jagdish Thakor and LOP will be Rathwa. But the official announcement might be made later in the evening," Amit Chavda told IANS.