Addressing the rally, Delkar said: “It is our (Congress) weakness due to which the people of Gujarat have elected Narendra Modi as chief minister.

He cannot stand before such a strong and effective leader like Sonia Gandhi. We should feel proud of having such leaders in the Congress.”

Delkar, who personally supervised the arrangements to welcome Sonia, said, “For the last five years, I have been in touch with Sonia Gandhi.”

He also fired a salvo of words at the ruling BJP. “The Gujarat government is misleading the people. The Congress has raised its voice and the time has come to destroy the BJP rule in Gujarat. Congress workers should unite,” he said.

Delkar has won the Dadra and Nagar Haveli seat six times in a row. Once, he contested on a BJP ticket, but later, he again contested as an independent candidate. He had contested for the seat for the first time in 1989 and won. At 27, he was the youngest MP then.

His father, Sanji Delkar, was a freedom fighter, whose proximity to the Gandhi-Nehru family was well-known. After Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru had nominated him as the Member of Parliament from Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Delkar started his career as a trade union leader in Silvassa and fought for the rights of tribal people working in different factories there.

Later, he started Adivasi Vikash Sangathan for the tribals, which has over 20,000 workers at present.