Congress Legislature Party meet today to back Prithviraj Chavan

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Maharashtra will meet on Thursday in an expression of support for chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.

The central leadership of the Congress Party has directed Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Manikrao Thakre to convene the meeting, to give a strong message that there is no threat to the government headed by Chavan.

Setting aside personal differences, the state Congress leaders on Wednesday reached out to MLAs across the state. About 40 of total its 82 MLAs also met Chavan.

This show of unity within the Congress in the state follows the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP’s) decision to train its guns on Chavan.

Over the last two days, the supporters of Ajit Pawar have held demonstrations and burned effigies of Chavan.

An AICC secretary said, “In this situation we are not going to take any hasty decision related to changing of the chief minister. The NCP’s campaign against Chavan helps him to consolidate his position in the state.”

Any decision related to a change of guard will be determined by the assessment within the Congress. A source said, “The complaint against Chavan is about his style of functioning. But how can we hold him responsible if he objects to corruption within the administration?”

Congress leaders will be relieved after the resolution at the meeting of NCP legislators on Wednesday asking Ajit Pawar to withdraw his resignation.

NCP president Sharad Pawar, who is in Kolkata, said, “I am not going to allow the state government to be destabilised. I will not accept the resignation of NCP ministers.”

Nineteen other NCP ministers in the state government also submitted their resignation letters to the state NCP chief Madhukar Picchad following the resignation of Ajit Pawar on Tuesday.