Congress to beef up presence in urban areas

The Congress party, which was swept away in urban seats in the just-concluded assembly elections, seems to have finally woken up to the need to build its presence in urban areas.

Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said on Tuesday that they were highly disappointed with the results in cities such as Surat and Vadodara, where the party failed to win a single urban seat in the December assembly polls.

The Congress drew a blank in Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot cities, even as it increased its tally in Ahmedabad city from two to four. In all, the party won only four out of 37 seats in the four key cities. It had also fared very poorly in the four cities in the 2012 elections when it had won just three seats in the four cities.

"The results were very disappointing for us, especially in Surat. Everyone had seen the kind of support the Congress was getting in Surat before the elections. We are working on a strategy to win over urban voters by raising issues related to them. We will also start building our party organisation in cities," Gehlot told media-persons.

The Congress and its allies won 80 seats in the elections, its best performance in more than two decades while restricting the BJP tally to 99 seats. Congress did exceedingly well in Saurashtra while winning more seats in the other regions too. Gehlot admitted that but for his party's extremely poor performance in the four key cities, the result could have been very different.

Cong prepares for taluka, municipality polls

Buoyed by its performance in the assembly elections, the Congress is now gearing up for elections to village, taluka and municipality polls.

Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki accused the state government of ignoring farmers' interests, even as he said that government functionaries were busy fighting over lucrative portfolios.

"Farmers are demanding Narmada water, but it is being given to industries. The government is not concerned about proper water management," he alleged.

He said that 1,423 village panchayats, as well as two district panchayats, 17 taluka panchayats and 75 municipalities, will go to polls in the near future.

"Farmers will teach the BJP a lesson for its unfulfilled promises in these elections," Solanki said. The newly appointed leader of the opposition, Paresh Dhanani too said that farmers were not getting the right prices for their produce.

Dhanani is expected to take charge as leader of the opposition on January 22, a day before the 182 MLAs take an oath. He said the Congress would use the experience of seniors and enthusiasm of young MLAs to give voice to people's issues in the assembly.