Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee

The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) is the state unit of the Indian National Congress in Gujarat. It is responsible for organizing and coordinating the party's activities and campaigns within the state, as well as selecting candidates for local, state, and national elections. Shaktisinh Gohil is the president of the Committee.^[1] It has 1,862 seats in various urban and rural local bodies in Gujarat.^[2] Its office is located at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, Ahmedabad. It is the single major opposition party against the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat. It has participated in every Gujarat Legislative Assembly election since 1962, the first election in the independent state.

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee
President	Shaktisinh Gohil
Chairman	Amit Chavda
Headquarters	Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, Ahmedabad - 380006, Gujarat
Youth wing	Gujarat Youth Congress
Women's wing	Gujarat Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee
Ideology	Populism Social liberalism Social democracy Secularism
Political position	Centre
Alliance	Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance
Seats in Lok Sabha	1 / 26
Seats in Rajya Sabha	1 / 11
Seats in Gujarat Legislative Assembly	12 / 182
Election symbol
Website
INC Gujarat
Politics of India Political parties Elections

History

Pre-independence

It was formed in 1920 and its first and longest running president was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The GPCC would organize Indian nationalist campaigns during the Indian freedom struggle, and after independence in 1947, it became responsible for supplying candidates of the Congress in local and state election campaigns.^[3]

Post-independence

The party contested its first elections in independent Gujarat in 1962, under the leadership of Jivran Mehta, who won with a strong majority of 113 seats. The party lost a number of seats in 1967, under the leadership of Hitendra Desai, albeit still had a simple majority. However, soon after the election Hitendra Desai defected to the Indian National Congress (Organisation) camp and formed the government with the party. In 1971, president's rule was declared and continued up to the 1972 election. The Congress swept the 1972 election under Ghanshyam Oza, winning 140 of the then-168 seats in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly. In 1973, Chimanbhai Patel replaced Oza as chief minister. The Chimanbai Patel government was dissolved following popular protests against the government as a part of the Navnirman Andolan in 1973-74, against economic crises and corruption in public life. The protests were successful and resulted in the dissolution of the government in 1974. President's rule was established until the next elections. In 1975, the Congress performed badly in the newly-held elections, winning only 75 out of 182 seats. The opposition parties formed the government under Bahubhai J. Patel of the INC(O). However, president's rule was declared in 1976 with Congress forming the government. This government lasted for only 3 months with the Janata Party, the new opposition bloc forming the government again. In 1980 the Congress stormed back to power with over 140 seats under Madhav Solanki. Madhav Solanki's government was extremely popular, and his government returned to power with a bigger majority in 1985. In 1990, the Congress got its lowest tally of seats in the Gujarat assembly ever, at 33. It was badly routed by the BJP-Janata Dal coalition. The Congress however came back to power in 1994. In the 1995 elections, the Congress again lost extremely bad, albeit performed better than the last election, with the BJP securing a huge majority of 121 seats. The Congress continued to perform relatively dismally in various Gujarat elections until 2015, when the Congress stormed into power in many rural local bodies of Gujarat, wiping out the BJP. The Congress also finally managed to make a major breakthrough in the 2017 Gujarat Legislative elections, reducing the number of BJP seats to 99, although it still lost the election by a few seats.

Office

Gujarat Pradesh Congress started functioning at Khamasa, Ahmedabad under leadership of Kantilal Ghiya, the first president.^[4] In 1971, it was shifted to Shahpur and then to Hawawala Blocks on Ashram Road, Ahmedabad. During 1977, it was again shifted to Khanpur, which till recently was Ahmedabad City Congress Committee (INC DCC Office). Subsequently to Vikram Chambers on Ashram Road. Finally, the place where Rajiv Bhawan stands at present was handed over to Congress by Hitendrabhai Desai.^[5] Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee is running from this premises, which was inaugurated on 28 December 2006 by Ahmedbhai Patel, Rajya Sabha MP.

Electoral performance

Legislative Assembly elections

Year	Seats contested	Seats won	Change in seats	Percentage of votes	Vote swing	Outcome
1962	154	113 / 154	113	50.84	N/A	Government
1967	168	93 / 168	20	45.96	4.88	Government, later opposition
1972	168	140 / 168	47	50.93	4.97	Government
1975	182	75 / 182	65	40.70	10.23	Opposition, briefly back in govt and later in oppn again
1980	182	141 / 182	66	51.04	10.34	Government
1985	182	149 / 182	9	55.55	4.51	Government
1990	182	33 / 182	116	30.74	24.81	Opposition, later government
1995	182	45 / 182	12	32.86	2.12	Opposition, later government
1998	182	53 / 182	8	34.85	1.99	Opposition
2002	182	51 / 182	2	39.28	4.43	Opposition
2007	173	59 / 182	8	38.00	1.28	Opposition
2012	176	61 / 182	2	38.93	0.93	Opposition
2017	179	77 / 182	16	41.44	2.57	Opposition
2022	179	17 / 182	60	27.22	14.12	Opposition

Lok Sabha elections

Year	Legislature	Seats won	Change in seats	Percentage of votes	Vote swing	Outcome
1962	3rd Lok Sabha	16 / 22	N/A	N/A	N/A	Government
1967	4th Lok Sabha	11 / 24	5	N/A	N/A	Government
1971	5th Lok Sabha	11 / 24		N/A	N/A	Government
1977	6th Lok Sabha	10 / 26	1	N/A	N/A	Opposition
1980	7th Lok Sabha	25 / 26	15	N/A	N/A	Government
1984	8th Lok Sabha	24 / 26	1	N/A	N/A	Government
1989	9th Lok Sabha	3 / 26	21	N/A	N/A	Opposition
1991	10th Lok Sabha	5 / 26	2	N/A	N/A	Government
1996	11th Lok Sabha	10 / 26	5	N/A	N/A	Opposition, later outside support for UF
1998	12th Lok Sabha	7 / 26	3	N/A	N/A	Opposition
1999	13th Lok Sabha	6 / 26	1	N/A	N/A	Opposition
2004	14th Lok Sabha	12 / 26	6	N/A	N/A	Government
2009	15th Lok Sabha	11 / 26	1	N/A	N/A	Government
2014	16th Lok Sabha	0 / 26	11	32.9	N/A	Opposition
2019	17th Lok Sabha	0 / 26		32.11	0.79	Opposition
2024	18th Lok Sabha	1 / 26	1	31.24	0.87	Opposition

Office bearers

Name	Wing/Position	Department	Ref(s)
Shaktisinh Gohil	State President	N/A	[6]
Mukul Wasnik	State in-charge	N/A	[7]
Jenny Thummar	State women's wing chief	Mahila gujarat congress	[8]
Dr Manish Doshi	Main Stream	chief Spokesperson and convenor	[9]
Manhar Patel	Main Stream	Spokesperson	[10]
Juned Patel	Chairman	Minority Department Social Media	[11]

Working presidents

• Himmatsingh Patel
• Indravijaysinh Gohil
• Jignesh Mevani
• Kadir Pirzada
• Rutvik Makwana
• Lalit Kagaratha^[6]

List of presidents

S.no	President	Portrait	Term
1.	B. K. Gadhvi		2004	2005
2.	Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki		2006	2008
3.	Siddharth Patel		2008	2011
4.	Arjun Modhwadia		2011	2015
(2).	Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki		2015	March 2018
5.	Amit Chavda		March 2018	6 December 2021
6.	Jagdish Thakor		6 December 2021	9 June 2023
7.	Shaktisinh Gohil		9 June 2023	Incumbent

See also

• Indian National Congress
• Congress Working Committee
• All India Congress Committee
• Pradesh Congress Committee

References

1. "Congress Party PCC Presidents - Indian National Congress". Archived from the original on 1 April 2019.
2. "BJP Dominates, AAP Impresses Again In Local Gujarat Polls". NDTV. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
3. Jaffrelot, Christophe (10 October 2017). "The Congress in Gujarat (1917–1969): Conservative Face of a Progressive Party". Studies in Indian Politics. 5 (2): 248–261. doi:10.1177/2321023017727982. S2CID 158248463.
4. "From Bombay to Delhi". 1970. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
5. "GUJARAT PRADESH CONGRESS". Indian National Congress. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
6. "Congress Party PCC Presidents". Indian National Congress. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
7. "Gujarat Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma lashes out at Hardik Patel". Business Standard India. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
8. "Gujarat: Jenny Thummar appointed Mahila Congress chief". The Indian Express. 28 March 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
9. "Congress picks new Gujarat unit chief, LoP". 3 December 2021.
10. "Gujarat School Declares Hindutva as the National Religion, Devanagari as the National Script". NewsClick. 28 January 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
11. "પેટ્રોલ – ડીઝલ થી લઇ રાંધણ ગેસ નો ભાવ વધારો સામાન્ય થી લઈ ધનવાનો ને અસર કરે છે:- જુનેદ પટેલ". Gramin Today. Retrieved 25 April 2022.

External links

• Official website