New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS): The Congress party will hold a crucial meet on Gujarat on Friday which will be chaired by Rahul Gandhi. The meeting comes ahead of appointment of new state president and recent debacles in urban local body elections.

The meeting will be attended by important leaders of the state including president, working president and other office bearers of the party. Sources said that this will be a feedback session to take stock of the state organisation which has not been able to defeat BJP in the state.

The recently appointed State In charge Raghu Sharma has tough task to take the veterans and young leaders along to strengthen the party organisation.

The Congress is zeroing on faces for the new state president. Former Union Minister Bharat Singh Solanki and Arjun Modwadia are being considered for the top party job while among the younger lot, Hardik Patel is said to be in the final lap, as he is already working president. However, Modwadia who is campaign committee chairman could be the top choice as he is from Porbandar.

The Congress' experiment with Paresh Dhanani and Amit Chavda have not yielded results and many MLAs have left the party since 2017 elections.

Speaking to IANS Raghu Sharma state in charge had said, "My priority is to strengthen the Congress party in Gujarat, to strengthen its structure, conduct training programs and there are other issues in the state that need to be addressed."

The Congress is also facing challenge from AAP and AIMIM in Gujarat and congress leaders admit that one of the reasons for civic poll losses are these parties which are cutting into Congress votes.

While recently in Gandhinagar Municipal poills the BJP scored over arch rival Congress, bagging 41 ward seats out of the total 44 seats. Two seats were claimed by the Congress with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) debuting in the political arena here with one seat.