Mumbai: A fortnight ago, 23 leaders of the Congress party signed a letter seeking sweeping changes in the party. The letter was addressed to the interim party president Sonia Gandhi asking for “full time and effective leadership” which is both “visible” and “active” in the field.
While Gandhi expressed that she was “hurt”, she said she held no ill feelings and wanted bygones to be bygones. But the party’s Maharashtra leadership is in no mood to overlook the role of three state leaders who had signed the letter. The state leaders have unanimously sought an apology from the state’s former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and former Union ministers Mukul Wasnik and Milind Deora.
Several prominent leaders like the state chief Balasaheb Thorat, former chief minister Ashok Chavan, Sunil Kedar among others have come out in favour of the Gandhi family. While offering their full support, the leaders have also urged for Rahul Gandhi to be back at the helm of the party’s affairs. This, they said while warning against “dissenting voices” in the state.
In a series of social media posts, while supporting the Gandhis, minister Kedar wrote that it was “shameful” of leaders like Chavan, Wasnik and Deora to have spoken against Sonia Gandhi’s leadership.
“I wholeheartedly support Hon. Sonia Gandhi ji as president. It is shameful of to Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan and Milind Deoraraise questions on the leadership of the Gandhi family. These leaders must apologise for their act immediately. Otherwise Congress workers will see how they move in the state freely,” Kedar warned in one of his tweets.
Kedar, a second-generation Congress leader from the Vidarbha region, is the son of Chhatrapal Kedar, also a former Congress minister in Maharashtra. Kedar holds the portfolios of dairy, animal husbandry, youth welfare and sports in the state and is considered to be close to the state leadership.
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Deora, a known dissident, has in the recent past taken a different line from the Congress, triggering speculation that he might soon jump the ship. He has been publicly disagreeing with the party leadership and has, on several occasions, even gone on to praise leaders from other political parties.
When he praised the Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal for his government having doubled Delhi’s revenue over the past five years, senior Congress leader Ajay Maken had said that if he wanted to leave the party, he should. “Brother, you want to leave @INCIndia-Please do-Then propagate half- baked facts!” Maken had tweeted.
While Prithviraj Chavan, on the other hand, has always been seen as a party loyalist and close to the central leadership, he too has been disgruntled. Under the current state dispensation, Chavan felt sidelined since he was kept out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi cabinet. Chavan has, in the past, held key positions both at national and state levels. He has served as Maharashtra’s chief minister and is known in the party for his vast political and administrative experience.
Following the letter debacle, the Congress Working Committee met on August 24 to discuss the party’s fate. After the meeting, the Gandhi family has emerged more powerful with support pouring in from party leaders and the 23 senior Congress leaders’ attempts to pressurise the party leadership seem to have backfired. Wasnik was the first one to have given in to the pressure.
“I owe a lot to Sonia Gandhi. Nobody can question my loyalty to the Congress party,” Wasnik told the press.
On August 23, the Maharashtra Congress passed a unanimous resolution pledging its support to Sonia Gandhi and requested that she continue as the party chief. The leaders had participated in a meeting organised through a Zoom call and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Mallikarjun Kharge had presided over the meeting.
“The senior congress leaders of Maharashtra have hereby unanimously resolved that madam Sonia ji Gandhi should continue as the Congress President as it is only because of her leadership our party came in power. She has made several sacrifices to rebuild the party and is still very actively involved in all the decisions pertaining to the party,” the resolution read.