Tribal leader Sukhram Rathva elected as Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly

Tribal leader Sukhram Rathva elected as Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly

Tribal leader and senior Congress MLA Sukhram Rathva was on Friday elected as the new Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.

Earlier in the day, Congress announced OBC leader Jagdish Thakor's appointment as its new Gujarat unit president ahead of the next year's Assembly elections.

Rathva, 65, a five-time MLA who currently represents Pavi-Jetpur constituency in Chhotaudepur district, was elected unanimously by Congress MLAs at a meeting held at the Gujarat Assembly complex in Gandhinagar on Friday evening.

Jagdish Thakor and Gujarat Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma were also present at the Congress Legislative Party's meeting. Rahtva would be replacing Paresh Dhanani.

While Thakor was appointed the new state Congress chief in place of Amit Chavda on Thursday, Rathva was elected on Friday by party MLAs after the high command cleared his name, said Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi.

Both the key posts were lying vacant since March when Chavda and Dhanani tendered resignations following Congress' poor performance in local bodies polls. Both had been asked to continue in their posts till new leaders were chosen. Prior to his election to the Assembly in 2017 from Pavi-Jetpur seat, Rathva had represented Chhota Udaipur Assembly seat for four consecutive terms in 1985, 1990, 1995 and 1998.

As per his official bio-data, Rathva is a farmer by profession. He started his political career in the early 70s with the Youth Congress and was elected to the Vadodara district panchayat in 1975.

Before becoming MLA for the first time in 1985, he also served as an elected member of Chhotaudepur taluka panchayat between 1980 and 1985 when Chhotaudepur was part of Vadodara district.

Tribal leader Sukhram Rathva elected as Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly
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