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.