Vaghela urges senior party leaders to bury differences

Ahmedabad, Jan. 19: GPCC president Shankarsinh Vaghela on Monday urged all senior party leaders to forget differences and come together to defeat the BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing reporters at party headquarters, Vaghela termed the current infighting in the state Congress as a "climax" and hoped that all senior leaders will bury their difference and come together to give a tough fight to the BJP in the state.

Vaghela reiterated that he was not bothered about the GPCC presidentship. When asked about likely change in the GPCC, he replied, "It is up to Sonia Gandhi to decide whether to replace me or not," and added that those who are opposing him, are in turn, helping the BJP.

Talking about Sardar Sena — a Danda Sena like outfit floated by senior leader Urmila Patel, Vaghela said, "I wish her good luck. I always appreciate whoever is making efforts to mobilise the masses for the party."

Meanwhile, GPCC has organised a meeting of all office-bearers, district presidents and other senior leaders to discuss and prepare a list of prospective candidates for the upcoming General Elections. The meeting will be held on January 21 at GPCC headquarters. On January 22, Pradesh Election Committee will meet to deliberate over the names to be sent to Central Election Committee of the AICC.

Talking about the criteria for selecting prospective candidates, Vaghela said "winnability" will be the first and foremost criterion.

Meanwhile, in her ongoing exercise to effect changes in Pradesh Congress Committees, AICC president Sonia Gandhi has appointed Prithviraj Chauhan, a long time AICC secretary and K.K. Sharma, an economist and a Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra, as the party observers for Gujarat. (Indian Post News Service)