Pune Congress virtually abandons Suresh Kalmadi

When Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Pune constituency last summer, his supporters roared ‘sabse bada khiladi, Suresh Kalmadi’. On Friday, however, the city unit of the Congress virtually abandoned their leader, showing neither sympathy nor support when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided his residence.

Although Kalmadi has dominated the city unit of the Congress for over a decade, none of the prominent members of his party — activist or leader — visited Kalmadi House to show his support. Among people who thronged to his house off Karve Road were mostly media persons.

A few party leaders did put in an appearance, among them executive committee members Kaka Dharmawat and Ramesh Aiyar, his publicist Pravin Walimbe and personal assistant Raja Mahajan. Immediately after the raids began at around 7.30 am, Mahajan came to the residence but preferred to stand some distance away from the house. Later, Walimbe turned up with two assistants.

Kalmadi House has been the hub of high-level political planning and plotting for decades. The high-profile Congress MP’s presence in the city would invariably be reflected in party leaders, political activists and others waiting outside for an appointment.

The Congress is the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) ruling alliance partner in the PMC and holds the posts of deputy mayor (Prasanna Jagtap), standing committee chairman (Arvind Shinde), chairman of the city improvement committee (Virendra Kirad), chairperson of the school education board (Sangeeta Tiwari) and leader of the opposition (Aba Bagul). They were all conspicuous by their absence on Friday.

Similarly, none of the party’s 43 corporators or Congress city president Abhay Chhajed visited their leader’s house.