Cong breaks out in groupism as polls near

Those favouring Patchigar argue that as he was very close to industrialists he could manage to get the necessary fundings for the poll campaign. Not only that, as all other candidates being projected by the party were defeated, it would be a good move to project a new face like Patchigar.

Patchigar, according to them, was an ideal choice as he was a local, belonged to a good social background (his father was a well-known freedom fighter) and could manage to garner the middle-class votes too.

Even Surat City Congress President Pratapsinh Kantharia, while admitting that “groupism in the Congress was hampering its growth”, said that as the party suffered humiliating defeat in last four consecutive Lok Sabha elections it was trying to field a new face this time.

“But he has told us that he would not be able to collect money from his industrialist friends. And a party out of power could not provide Rs 80 lakh to contest Surat Lok Sabha seat,” he said.

But GPCC vice-president Pirzada, seemed dead against the idea when he raised questions like, “What does he (Patchigar) know about Surat Constituency? What is his political background? Does he have any vote bank? Has he ever contested any election? What is his political base?”

However, another Congress leader, requesting anonymity, claimed that Pirzada opposed Patchigar as he felt threatened of being marginalised. “So far he (Pirzada) has been treating the Congress party as his pocket organisation and party workers as his slave,” the angry worker alleged.

When asked why didn’t he contest the election instead, Pirzada said,“It is not right time for me to contest election. At least not from Surat. Atmosphere here has been so vitiated here that if I contest from Surat, the BJP might engineer communal riots as they have done in the past.”

The Congress, disclosed Pirzada, was instead considering former Olpad MLA Ushaben Patel and former environment minister Baghu Vimal — both Kodi Patels, who constituted a sizeable vote bank in Surat Parliamentary constituency — for the purpose.

Even former standing committee chairman of SMC Jawahar Upadhyay — a right hand man of GPCC president C D Patel — has expressed his willingness to contest against South Gujarat strongman Kashiram Rana and is a strong contender for the party ticket. But a section of Congress workers are unhappy with him too.

At present, the Congress in Surat is a divided house with different groups — owing allegiance to Ahmed Patel, C D Patel, Amarsinh Chaudhary, Madhavsinh Solanki and Arjun Singh — in the party.

This was proved on July 19, when the party sent two observers to elicit views of 150 office-bearers for a election candidate and only 15 of them turned out. While Kantharia and Pirzada claimed heavy rains as a reason for the poor turnout, Bhupendra Solanki, the lone congress councillor in SMC and party’s spokesman, said that he was not even informed.

Meanwhile, all senior party leaders have decided to face the elections unitedly, claimed Pirzada. “C D Patel has authorised us to select a candidate and we are in the process of finalising a name”, he said.