Amit Chavda appointed Congress Legislature Party leader in Gujarat
Ahmedabad (PTI): The Congress on Tuesday appointed Amit Chavda as its legislature party leader in Gujarat and Shailesh Parmar as the deputy leader.
Chavda had earlier served as the Gujarat Congress chief.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K C Venugopal in a communication to Gujarat unit head Jagdish Thakor said the party president has approved the proposal for the nomination of Chavda as the leader and Parmar as the deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the state.
The Gujarat Assembly secretariat recently asked the opposition Congress to appoint its "authorised person" or leader in the House before January 19.
Chavda, 46, is the five-term legislator hailing from Anand district in central Gujarat. He served as the state Congress president between 2018 and 2021.
In the Gujarat Assembly elections held in December 2022, Chavda won from Anklav seat in Anand, defeating Bharatiya Janata Party's Gulabsinh Padhiyar.
Parmar, 53, won his fourth election last year from Ahmedabad's Danilimda seat, reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, by defeating BJP's Naresh Vyas.
As per rule, the opposition parties are supposed to appoint their respective leaders in the House within 30 days of swearing-in of the newly-elected members of the Legislative Assembly.
Members of the 15th Legislative Assembly in Gujarat were sworn in on December 19, 2022.
The ruling BJP won 156 seats in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly in the polls last month, while the Congress finished a distant second with 17 seats.
The Aam Aadmi Party won five seats, while three seats went to independents and one was bagged by the Samajwadi Party.
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PM must resign when TMC wins Bengal: Derek O'Brien
Kolkata (PTI): Trinamool Congress's Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien on Wednesday expressed confidence that his party will come back to power in the state after the assembly elections and challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resign when the results come.
In a video shared on microblogging site X, O'Brien accused the prime minister of making exaggerated political claims and urged him to "accept the challenge" instead of indulging in "big talk."
"Narendra, you had announced that you are the candidate on all 294 seats in West Bengal. Leave out the big talk and accept this challenge..." O'Brien wrote.
He asserted that if the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC wins the state, the prime minister should step down from his post. "When Mamata Banerjee and TMC win West Bengal, you will resign from your post as the prime minister," he said.
The remarks come amidst an intensifying political contest in West Bengal, where the ruling TMC and the Bharatiya Janata Party are engaged in a high-stakes electoral battle.
Polling is taking place in 142 constituencies in the second and final phase of the assembly elections on Wednesday, amid unprecedented security arrangements and a high-intensity contest that could decide whether the ruling TMC retains its dominance over the southern districts or the BJP can force open the gates of power in the state.
