Its choices few, Gujarat Congress now deals with surprise nominee quitting race

EVEN AS it has been battling setback after setback in Gujarat, the Congress was perhaps not prepared for this one. Six days after the party gave Rohan Gupta a ticket from the Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha constituency, he announced on X that he was withdrawing his candidature, citing his father’s health.

This was a double whammy for the Congress, given that the party picked Gupta putting aside an embarrassing row he was involved in two years ago – surprising, and angering, several leaders – and given that it now has to find an alternative from an admittedly very narrow pool.

Gupta, 46, had been removed as head of the Congress’s social media team two years ago after his family’s association with a firm promoted by a confidant of Union Home Minister Amit Shah became public.

All had been going swimmingly after the Congress announced his name on March 12, in what was seen as the party letting bygones be bygones. Gupta set Wednesday as the date for his first public meeting in the Ahmedabad East seat, at Bapunagar; March 23 for inauguration of his election office; and put together a 100-member team for his campaign – before he said he was withdrawing.

The fact that he chose to do so via X, posting an image of the letter he wrote to Gujarat Congress chief Shaktisinh Gohil, has also not gone down well. Incidentally, hours before Gupta made his letter public, his father Rajkumar, a Congressman of 40 years, and a member of the party’s disciplinary committee, sent his resignation to Gohil – provoking bitter party leaders to accuse the father and son of “pressure tactics”.

Rajkumar had fought from the same Ahmedabad East seat 20 years back.

After his withdrawal and his father’s resignation became known, Gupta told reporters, “My father was