Mumbai: In a major blow to Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole and Maha Vikas Aghadi, the Congress party high command dropped its names from the MVA coordination committee for seat sharing formula in Maharashtra. Senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan has reportedly made a complaint to party high command regarding Mr. Patole's approach in the state.
A senior party insider said that Ashok Chavan was not happy with Congress names proposed by Mr. Patole for the coordination committee. In fact, Mr. Patole did not take into confidence senior party leaders of his party in the state as well as at the centre before sending the names to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. This irked AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, who scrapped the names for the seat sharing formula in Maharashtra.
Nana Patole on last Wednesday had met Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray at latter’s residence 'Matoshree' where he gave names of Nasim Khan, Prithviraj Chavan and Basavraj Patil for the said committee. Mr. Patole also requested him to form the coordination committee of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which includes Congress, Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT). Following this, the MVA had formed a nine members committee to finalize its seat-sharing formula for Lok Sabha in Maharashtra. Three members from each constituent are on the committee.
As soon as the names of the committee had come into the public domain, the Congress leaders from Mumbai, western Maharashtra and Marathwada raised objections over the names of Nasim Khan and Basavraj Patil stating that senior leaders like Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan and Sushil Kumar Shinde were ignored and they were not even consulted before sending the names to Uddhav Thackeray, said the party insider.
A senior Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said, “Whenever the joint committee is formed, it is a prerogative of AICC to give the names for it. However, Mr. Patole went ahead with his choices of names, without taking approval from the AICC.”
According to this leader, Mr. Patole has been working on the insistence of Nasim Khan, who does not have any experience for seat sharing negotiation.
“The party high command has made a call to Shiv Sena (UBT) asking them to not consider the names proposed by the MPCC president. The AICC will soon submit the names,” the senior party leader said.
