New Delhi, Oct 23 (IANS): The Congress on Wednesday dissolved its Gujarat unit but asked the state unit chief Amit Chavda to continue. Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi approved the "proposal to dissolve the panel of office bearers and Executive Committee of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC)".

Congress Gujarat in-charge Rajiv Satav told IANS, "we will constitute a new committee soon and will retain those who have performed well in the past one year".

The Congress in the state has faced desertion as prominent MLA Alpesh Thakore joined the BJP.

Congress insiders said that the new committee will be smaller and young leaders will be given a chance.

Former party President Rahul Gandhi had appointed the new committee led by Amit Chavda. The party promoted Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakore. While Hardik Patel is with the Congress, Thakore left the party citing insults and betrayal.

A former state President expressed surprise over the continuation of state unit chief Chavda.

The Gujarat Congress is led by young faces in the party and senior leaders are in the Executive Committee. Senior leaders like Siddhart Patel, Arjun Modwadia, Bharat Singh Solanki are eyeing these posts now as they are close to party treasurer Ahmed Patel.

But a Congress leader insisted that this is nothing new. Committees have been dissolved in the past including the one in Karnataka, where State President Dinesh Gundu Rao was retained, while the entire committee was dissolved.