Dhanani in house: ‘Lack of enthusiasm, finance among reasons behind Cong’s defeat’

Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly and senior Congress MLA Paresh Dhanani on Thursday cited lack of enthusiasm among party workers and financial resources among reasons behind the party’s disastrous performance in the recent local body elections in the state.

Speaking from the floor of the House during a debate on a motion of thanks to the Governor’s address moved by BJP MLA from Gadhada constituency, Atmaram Parmar, Dhanani also cited lack of aggressive campaign, delay in taking punitive action, indecisiveness in selection of candidates and incomplete organisation.

In his speech, Dhanani said that their fight was against burning issues of the society such as increasing prices of petrol/diesel, costly education, inflation, costly medical treatment, etc.

“Unfortunately, we failed in defeating these problems (faced by people) and arrogance of the (BJP) government. And we regret it a lot…We respectfully accept the very poor results in the elections of institutes of local self governance,” Dhanani said while congratulating the BJP for its victory.

“We have to accept the truth. It is very necessary to identify the deficiencies to correct them,” Dhanani said.

Citing that somewhere the workers were facing the disappointment of defeat in by-elections (of eight assembly constituencies recently), Dhanani also alleged that before the elections of six municipal corporations, 10,000 Congress workers/leaders in those cities were put under house arrest or under police vigil.

He also alleged that awakened citizens remained aloof to the voting process and that voters were put under the influence of fear or finance.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel registered his objection to the statement by Dhanani, stating that it was insult of the voters of Gujarat.

Following the poor results of the local bodies elections, Dhanani and Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Amit Chavda had tendered their resignations. The party leadership has asked them to hold the posts till replacement. Chavda is also a senior Congress member in the Gujarat Assembly.

In the elections of six municipal corporations, 31 district panchayats, 231 taluka panchayats and 81 municipalities, Congress lost all the municipal corporations and district panchayats to the BJP. It has also lost most of the taluka panchayats and nagarpalikas to BJP.

Speaking with The Indian Express about his speech in the House, Dhanani said, “I put forward my honest opinion (in the House)… Only if we acknowledge the deficiencies and correct the same, we can succeed in Mission of tomorrow i.e. 2022 assembly elections.”