Congress celebrates low-key foundation day

The times have changed and since the Congress is out of power, both at the Centre and in state, celebrating Congress foundation day was a low-key affair. Many prominent ministers in the earlier Prithviraj Chavan cabinet, including Chavan himself, were absent for the celebrations organised by the state unit at Dadar on Sunday.

The state unit had organised the 128th foundation day of the party at state headquarters at Tilak Bhavan in Dadar. State unit president Manikrao Thakre and former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde gave the oath of National integration to party workers. Barring these two leaders, along with former ministers Dr Nitin Raut and Nasim Khan, no other former minister was present for the function.

Both Thakre and Shinde underlined the need for keeping the party interest on top even as the party was going through rough weather. Interestingly, none of the leaders made any mention to the fact that prominent former ministers did not attend this function. Neither Chavan nor Thakre responded to the phone calls of this correspondent.