Sonia Gandhi meets dissident Congressmen

Anti-Chavan Congress leaders from the state got a shot in the arm on Saturday as Congress president Sonia Gandhi gave them a patient hearing at her 10 Janpath residence.

With this meeting, the Vilasrao Deshmukh camp took the first step to ensure that its nominees unseat incumbent Pradesh Congress committee chief Manikrao Thakre and Mumbai unit president Kripashankar Singh in the organisational reshuffle that is on the cards.

Emerging from the meeting, Pune MLC Ulhas Pawar, also a frontrunner from the Deshmukh camp for the PCC chief’s post, told reporters that they had conveyed their feelings to the party president about the ground situation in Maharashtra. “We have demanded that the PCC chief’s post should go to someone who has sufficient seniority and stature to lead the party and wage a firm battle against the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party,” he said.

‘The discredited Mumbai Congress committee chief Kripashankar Singh should also be replaced. His involvement in the shady Madhu Koda episode is a disgrace for the party,” he added.
Though Thakre began his stint at the Pradesh Congress as Deshmukh supporter, over the course of the previous years he switched sides, and now, like Singh, is being strongly opposed by the Deshmukh camp.

This meeting has also come in the wake of two related developments. The first is a meeting between Gandhi and Deshmukh last week. The second is Deshmukh’s public criticism of the Ashok Chavan-led Congress-NCP government’s neglect of the developmental activities of his home district Latur.

Chief minister Chavan acknowledged this criticism during his visit to Delhi earlier in the week. “We will hold a review meeting with the legislators and officials on September 20,” he had said.
In the context of the PCC chief’s post, Congress secretary Mohan Prakash, incharge for Maharashtra affairs, told DNA that the Congress president has been authorised to nominate the state unit president. “It is customary to discuss things with senior leaders before any such decision is taken,” he said.