Who spoiled the party? Cong initiates inquiry

With the election dust settling down, the Congress, which lost to the BJP in a close contest, has started initiating action against those who indulged in anti-party activities in the run up to the polls, and may have sabotaged the party's prospects.

In a letter to all 176 Congress candidates, who contested in the state assembly elections, and the party's city and district chiefs, state party president Bharatsinh Solanki demanded that all such activities that may have come to their notice and had hurt the party in the elections be brought to his attention.

"You are requested to send across the details by January 2," Solanki directed the party leaders in the letter dated December 25.

Action would be initiated against leaders and workers who had indulged in anti-party work during the polls, based on the feedback, Congress officials said.

The letters were sent a couple of days after Congress president Rahul Gandhi had publicly stated in Ahmedabad during his visit last week that 90 per cent of leaders and workers had worked for the party in the elections, and action would be taken against the 10 per cent who had not.

The Congress lost a number of seats which it was expected to win. In fact, its four top leaders, viz. Shaktisinh Gohil, Arjun Modhwadia, Siddharth Patel and Tushar Chaudhary, ended up on the losing side, with many blaming internal differences as one of the reasons for the loss.

The 2017 Gujarat assembly elections were the closest the state has seen in well over two decades. The BJP won the sixth straight election in the state, but with a tally of just 99 seats, its lowest in six polls, while Congress won 77 seats. However, the elections were far closer than the numbers suggest, with as many as 27 seats being decided with a victory margin of less than 3,000 votes.