Gujarat confidential: Additional Duties

The Surat Range has five districts in South Gujarat in its jurisdiction. Chandrasekhar was relieved of the Range charge on December 6, and since then Jamir has been holding the additional post.

Faisal’s Yatra

Faisal Patel, son of party veteran late Ahmed Patel, has planned a ‘Bharuch Jodo Yatra’ on the lines of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, starting on February 10, as part of his “outreach programme” to meet voters of the Bharuch parliamentary constituency. Patel, who has begun making the pitch for the constituency with posters of ‘I will fight’ (Hun Toh ladhish) has released a poster of the ‘Bharuch Jodo Yatra’ without the logo of the party but carrying photos of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and his father.

Patel’s regular public appearance, including a tribal rally in Dediapada in Narmada last week, is being viewed as a power struggle within the family as sister Mumtaaz has also expressed her aspiration to contest the seat on a Congress ticket in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Sources said that Patel will officially announce the Bharuch Jodo Yatra next week. The poll heat is already building up in the state ahead of general elections.