After the crushing defeat in the assembly elections of the five states, Congress is preparing to enter the electoral fray of Gujarat with full force. The Gujarat elections are to be held at the end of this year. Gujarat congress is developing a well-planned election strategy through various socio-political discussions and events.
Raghu Sharma, the AICC- in-charge of Gujarat for the last five months held many private and public gatherings to get a grip of the political scenario of Gujarat. He had met many more than a thousand congress party workers from the taluka to the district to state level. Post these meetings he had realised that without a strong team congress cannot win the upcoming assembly elections in the state. Therefore, Sharma is making considerable changes in the state congress party leadership. As a result, the current AICC in-charge secretary of Gujarat, Dr Vishwaranjan Mohanty and Jitendra Baghel got farewell from the post of AICC secretary.
Analysing and realising the social equations of Gujarat, Raghu Sharma had appointed four Congress leaders, Umang Singhar, Virendra Singh Rathore, B. M Sandeep, and Ramkrishna Ojha as the new in-charge secretaries. They were chosen based on their honesty, organizational ability and combativeness.
For the first time, the four have been posted as the in-charge secretaries in Gujarat.
Who Are In Raghu Sharma’s Team:
Umang Singhar
Umang Singhar is a tribal youth leader. He is the nephew of former Deputy Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Jamuna Devi. Umang comes from the Dhar district and is the third consecutive time MLA from the Gandhwani assembly seat of the district. He had won the 2008 elections by defeating Chhatar Singh Darbar of BJP. Then he won the 2013 and 2018 assembly elections.
Umang believes in fighting on the ground and is a staunch critic of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh.
In 1990 Umang Singhar joined Youth Congress. Umang became the President of the District Youth Congress in Bhopal in 1994. He served in this position till 2003. 2018, he became the Forest Environment Minister in the Kamal Nath government. In Gujarat, he will be taking care of the tribal areas. His aunt Jamuna Devi was counted among the most experienced MLAs of the state and senior leaders of the tribal community.
Virendra Singh Rathore
Virendra Singh Rathore is a Congress leader from North Haryana. He had been associated with Youth Congress. He is a well known political orator too. Singh was a Congress candidate from Haryana’s Gharaunda assembly in 2009, but his dream of reaching the assembly remains unfulfilled.
He was once close to Ashok Tavar, who is now a trusted lieutenant of Rahul Gandhi. Also, he was the immediate second-in-charge of Bihar and assistant to Rajya Sabha MP Shakti Singh Gohil. He was also active during the peasant movement.
B. M Sandeep –
A few leaders in Congress have emerged because of the electoral method started by Rahul Gandhi in Youth Congress and Congress. BM Sandeep is one of them. A resident of Chikmagalur district of Karnataka, Sandeep, a graduate of IDSG Government First Grade College, has been responsible for conducting elections in the Youth Congress for a long time.
He was the head of the first Karnataka unit of Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Committee and then the All India unit. Sandeep played an important role in bringing Gandhism back to Congress with the help of Wardha Ashram, grounded and low profile Gujarat is not new to Sandeep. Before Gujarat, he was the secretary-in-charge of Maharashtra. They have been shifted from Maharashtra to Gujarat.
Ramkrishna Ojha-
RK Ojha, son of senior Congress leader Prabha Ojha. Ojha (Ramkrishna Ojha) is from Nagpur Maharashtra. He was the General Secretary of the Maharashtra Congress, he was brought on the demand of Gujarat in-charge Raghu Sharma, his mother Prabha Ojha was close to Indira Gandhi.
In the last election, R.K. Ojha withdrew his candidature at the behest of Ahmed Patel, despite claiming a ticket from Nagpur. The Hindi speaking Ojha has been directly linked to Raghu Sharma, playing the role of Raghu Sharma’s assistant and will work to cater to the Hindi speakers. He was made a member of the Cultural Board in the UPA government.
