Congress in revamp mode: 3 Congress chief ministers may face the axe

New Delhi: The fate of three chief ministers Prithviraj Chavan of Maharashtra, Tarun Gogoi of Assam and Bhupinder Singh Hooda of Haryana will be decided next week.

The Congress made this clear here on Thursday. While Maharashtra and Haryana are going to the polls in October-November this year, dissension against Mr Gogoi within the party has been growing for various reasons.

The Congress high command has also decided to replace PCC chiefs in eight to 10 states where the Assembly elections are due in the coming years. They include Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir, besides Maharashtra and Assam.

Asked whether Mr Chavan, Mr Gogoi and Mr Hooda are on their way out, a top-level source in the Congress said, “[There are] 50-50 chances... they may or may not go.” But any decision in this regard will not be taken before Monday next, he clarified.

This means that the Central leadership cannot afford to delay taking “corrective steps” in these sta-tes following the Congress’ worst performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

While the Congress got only one seat in Haryana of the total 10, it won two seats in Maharashtra of the 48 and three seats in Assam of the total 14.

Speculation about a change of guard in Maharashtra became rife after senior Congress leader A.K. Antony and the Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel met NCP chief Sharad Pawar during the day at the latter’s residence.

Although the names of Balasaheb Thorat and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil are doing the rounds to succeed Mr Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde is emerging as a strong candidate for the post. This is because he is a familiar face in the state and could send a positive message to non-Marathas. When contacted, Mr Shinde told this newspaper, “It is not true that I have been asked to take over as Maharashtra CM. I have not been told about it. You (the media) must have been misguided.”