MLAs Skip Party Meeting, Congress Says Nothing to Worry

Mumbai: Even as the Congress is claiming that none of its MLAs will defect after Ashok Chavan’s exit, six-seven of the 43 Maharashtra Congress lawmakers skipped a legislative party meeting on Thursday. However, state Congress president Nana Patole said that the absent MLAs had informed the party about their unavailability and they had valid reasons.

The meeting was called as a show of strength and unity ahead of Rajya Sabha elections. The Congress claimed that four of its MLAs had remained absent due to valid reasons. However, the list of absentees included names close to Mr. Chavan and others whose family members have already joined the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP.

The Congress legislative party meeting was held before the party’s candidate Chandrakant Handore filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha. However, Jitesh Antapurkar, Mohan Hambarde, and Madhavrao Pawar Jawalgaonkar, who are known as Mr. Chavan’s loyalists, were among the absentees.

Zeeshan Siddique, Sangram Thopte, K.C. Padvi and Sulabha Khodke were also absent. Interestingly, Zeeshan’s father Baba Siddique has already joined the Ajit Pawar group and the MLA is likely to follow him after the Lok Sabha election. Ms. Khodke’s husband Sanjay Khodke is a close aide of Ajit Pawar. She did not attend the Congress meeting because of a marriage in her family. However, her husband was present in Vidhan Bhavan when Praful Patel filed his nomination as the NCP candidate.

Mr. Patel will resign from his current Rajya Sabha membership and get re-elected. When asked why he is contesting another election when he has four years of his current Rajya Sabha term left, Mr Patel said, “We are in politics. Some things happen. You will understand the picture in the coming days.”

The NCP leader claimed that the NDA will win more than 400 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections. “NDA government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be formed once again after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This time we will win more than 400 Lok Sabha seats in the country and 45 seats in Maharashtra,” he said.

According to sources, former minister Aslam Shaikh also reached Vidhan Bhavan after the Congress meeting got over. He dismissed the reports that he will leave Congress.

State Congress Patole also said that all Congress MLAs are together and they will vote for Mr. Handore. He informed that he and Balasaheb Thorat have spoken to all MLAs and they are with the party. It is believed that at least 10 Congress MLAs are Chavan supporters.

However, Mr. Handore’s election is certain. There are seven candidates in the fray for six Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra including an independent candidate Vishwas Jagtap. However, Mr. Jagtap has not obtained signatures of mandatory 10 proposers.

As per rules, nomination papers of an independent candidate for Rajya Sabha have to be signed by 10 MLAs as proposers. Officials said that Mr. Jagtap has been informed to furnish signatures of 10 MLAs by Friday. If he fails to do so, his nomination will be rejected. In that case, all six candidates put up by recognised political parties will be elected unopposed.

Mr. Chavan filed his nomination as the BJP candidate. He said that it was his personal decision to quit the Congress and he has not spoken to anyone else in the party. The former Maharashtra CM also said that he is not trying to bring any other Congres MLA to the BJP.

The other two BJP candidates are Medha Medha Kulkarni and Ajit Gopchhade. Milind Deora, who also recently quit Congress and joined the Eknath Shinde-led party, filed his nomination as the Shiv Sena candidate.