Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole addresses a press conference in Mumbai. , Photo Credit: PTI
wNana Patole takes over as the ‘import’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Congress Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President In 2021, he had raised hopes of consolidating the party rank and file. Known for his aggressive style and a vocal opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies. Shri Patole resigns from Lok Sabha and BJP membership In December 2017, while being the sitting MP of Bhandara-Gondiya constituency.
Mr Patole, who had defeated Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) heavyweight Praful Patel in the 2014 general election, later attributed his resignation to the BJP’s anti-farmer stand, demonetisation move and implementation of the GST. In 2018, he joined the Congress and was made the president of the party’s Kisan Khet Mazdoor cell. After the Congress formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with the Shiv Sena and the NCP in late 2019, Mr Patole was given the post of president. He quits in early 2021 to take up the post of state Congress chief.
Initially, Mr. Patole’s blunt stand against the NCP was welcomed by the youth MLAs and cadre of the Congress, noting that many MLAs wanted a strong Congress leadership to counter the NCP’s ‘dominance’ within the MVA and the expansionist aspirations of the NCP. Worried about the lack of ,
Maharashtra Congress has been grappling with a leadership crisis since 2016 when Ashok Chavan was the state Congress chief. Its disastrous performance in the 2019 general elections led Mr Chavan to resign from his post. Similarly, Mr. Chavan’s successor Balasaheb Thorat proved to be an ineffective party-builder. In contrast, Mr. Patole seemed a fresh breath of air.
But upon taking over as Congress chief, Mr. Patole’s repeated assertions that the Congress would ‘go it alone’ in future elections irked the coalition partners of the MVA as well as sections within his party . Since then, NCP leaders have tried to discredit Mr Patole as a “loose cannon”. Some have even mocked him as the “Sidhu of Maharashtra”.
The trust deficit within the MVA parties only widened at the same time. Congress’s ‘Chintan Shivir’ in 2022 Where Mr Patole presented complaints to the party high command relating to the NCP’s “constant betrayal” of the Congress and alleged attempts to weaken the party in Maharashtra.
Mr Patole had then slammed former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s army for allegedly devising a three-ward system for the civic polls without consulting the Congress. Without naming any party, he denounced the “opportunism” of the Shiv Sena and the NCP, indicating that the three-ward system was devised only to benefit these parties in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections.
Even after this, Mr. Patole’s indecent comments against his colleagues have not stopped. Fall of MVA in June 2022. His behavior has alienated the old guard of the Congress. Earlier this month, when Mr. Thorat resigned from his post as leader of the Congress Legislature Party, he wrote a strongly worded letter to the party high command in which he cited serious differences with Mr. Patole (without naming him). Said about Mr Thorat reportedly alleged that he was being “humiliated” by Mr Patole during party meetings and said the MPCC chief was “impossible” to work with. His nephew Satyajit Tambe also hit out at Mr Patole, alleging that the MPCC chief was trying to defame the Tambe and Thorat families.
However, last week, Mr Patole said there was no rift between him and Mr Thorat, even as he claimed Thorat had not resigned and submitted no such letter. At a press conference after a crucial meeting of the State Congress Working Committee on February 15, a confident Mr Patole, accompanied by a weary-looking Mr Thorat, said “all is well” in the Maharashtra Congress and blamed the BJP for creating this impression. That the state unit was “a divided unit”. Senior Congressmen say that despite this “closure” to the Thorat case, Mr Patole cannot afford to alienate leaders who have held key constituencies for decades, noting that the party has lost ground in Maharashtra. rapidly losing its former strongholds. He alleges that Mr. Patole is trying to form his own troupe and run the party by taking unilateral decisions.
While several senior leaders have rallied behind Mr. Patole in the larger interest of party unity, the upcoming assembly bypolls and civic polls will be a litmus test of whether the state Congress chief’s leadership will enable the party to regain its lost political ground in Maharashtra. may or may not help. ,