Mumbai: To continue its outreach to voters after the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress is planning a two-month grassroots Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra (Handshake March). starting this month, But in Maharashtra, some of the party’s own senior leaders are neither able to shake hands nor make eye contact with each other.
Analysts as well as party insiders say multiple power centres, conflicting statements by senior leaders and rebellion by political families that have been Congress strongholds for decades have severely crippled the party in the state.
And given that Maharashtra sends the second largest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha (after Uttar Pradesh), the situation could have serious implications for the party, some pointed out.
What makes this situation even more ironic is that the Congress was born in 1885 in erstwhile Bombay, but now seems to be self-immolating in the region of its birthplace.
recent example of Big rift in Maharashtra Congress When the leader of the Legislature Party was a member of Balasaheb Thorat’s family went against the party’s decision For the upcoming Legislative Council elections. Thorat’s brother-in-law and nephew Congress leader Sudhir Tambe and his son Satyajit Tambe were both suspended from the party over this matter.
Party insiders and political analysts say this shameful saga is symptomatic of a wider malaise.
“It seems that all the top leaders are not working together. Congress has become a party of ‘talk-no-action’ in Maharashtra leaders,” said political commentator Hemant Desai.
“The Maharashtra-born party looks very weak, though it is still somewhat relevant in the Vidarbha region. No ground work or any program has been done by the party,” he said.
While some Congress leaders point the finger at the BJP for “breaking up families”, others say the problem is largely internal.
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Divided families, ‘house breaking’ BJP?
Veteran leader Sudhir Tambe was being considered as the official Congress candidate for the Nashik graduate constituency for the MLC elections to be held on January 30. But instead of filing his nomination papers, he tried to make way for his 39-year-old son Satyajit, a former state Youth Congress president.
Because he did not have all the necessary paperwork, Satyajit went ahead and filed his nomination as an independent candidate without party consent.
Congress sources did told ThePrint Earlier this month, Satyajit’s uncle Balasaheb Thorat was shocked and “unhappy” with his nephew’s move.
The split in the Tambe-Thorat House is also a setback for the Congress. For nearly two decades, Tambe and the Thorats together ensured victory for the Congress in two places – the Nashik MLC seat that Sudhir Tambe held for three consecutive terms, and the Sangamner assembly constituency in Ahmednagar district that Balasaheb Thorat won seven times. Had won. in a row.
The latest controversy has led some Congress leaders to point fingers at the BJP, which interestingly has not fielded a candidate against it. The Satyajit youth leader also made a public statement about seeking BJP’s “support” in the Nashik MLC election, though the party kept its cards close to its chest.
He said, ‘It has been the tradition of the BJP that they try to break people’s families. They are not even getting their candidate and hence they resort to breaking into others’ houses,” Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole told reporters in Mumbai last Wednesday.
While the BJP’s role in the Tambe rebellion is up for debate, The party has had an unmistakable influence in other Congress bastions.
Ahead of the 2019 assembly elections, there were cases of entire Congress ‘dynasties’ in Maharashtra switching over to the BJP, taking their support base with them.
For example, in March 2019, the then Congressman Sujay Vikhe-Patil jump In BJP and became MP for the first time from Ahmednagar. Six months later, his father, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, also followed suit And is now a cabinet minister in the Maharashtra government headed by Eknath Shinde. Vikhe-Patils have attended many parties through the yearsBut the longest association of the family was with the Congress.
Similarly, former MP Harshvardhan Patil, who represented the Indapur parliamentary seat for the Congress four times, got included in His uncle Shankarrao Patil had twice wrested the Baramati parliamentary constituency from the Congress in the 1980s before the 2019 assembly elections. and was a cabinet minister in the 1970s.
Narayan Rane And his son, who switched from the Shiv Sena to the Congress in 2005 and helped the former usher in Maharashtra’s Konkan region, left the party in 2017. Two years later, he formally joined the BJP on the basis of its support in the coastal districts. Rane is now a Union minister.
There have been persistent rumors about the possibility of two other long-standing Congress families joining the BJP – the Chavans of Nanded and the Deshmukhs of Latur. However, Congress MLAs Ashok Chavan and Amit Deshmukh have strongly denied these suggestions on several occasions.
“BJP is trying to capture the families which can win irrespective of which party they belong to. They cannot increase their base and hence try to get people and families who have been winning for years. part of a political family,
“In this case also, they tried to scuttle Satyajit and made him stand as an independent. It is a shame, but there is no other option. Not only the Congress, the BJP is trying to break the candidates of other parties as well. Even families like Pawar, Bhosale are in danger. This will continue to happen. This is their strategy.
Another Congress leader alleged: “They are tapping into these big families who are major players in the cooperative sector. Cooperation is ideally a state subject, however, in this tenure, the central government created a new ministry of cooperation and since Maharashtra has many cooperatives, the BJP is trying to break these political families.
Last week BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule protested For the ‘home breaker’ allegations against the goalscorer. “The Congress is a sinking ship and there is no unity among the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) partners. That’s why the Congress is accusing us of breaking the house.
The MVA alliance, consisting of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, was in power in Maharashtra from November 2019 to June 2022, when a split in the Shiv Sena led to the collapse of that government. fall down,
many power centers
Earlier this month, the state Congress had organized a meeting in Nagpur to join hands campaign. But many senior leaders like Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan, Yashomati Thakur and Vishwajit Kadam keep away Citing various reasons.
And this is not a one time event. Last month, when the MVA organized a massive protest rally against the BJP and Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chavan left the program and attended the marriage of his nephew. He sent his wife in his place at the rally.
In 2019, Patole helmed ‘Pol Khol Tour’ (Expose BJP march) ahead of assembly elections, but senior leaders distanced themselves from it saying they were not taken into confidence.
Later, after becoming the party’s state president, Patole gave conflicting statements about his departure. Solo Analysts say the upcoming municipal elections, despite being in power with the Shiv Sena and the NCP, are causing confusion among workers.
When the MVA alliance was in power, the Congress had 28 MLAs. wrote In 2021, the then party president is calling Sonia Gandhi of the party ministers Not helping members with development work and access to finance.
Congress is in complete trouble in Maharashtra. There is no leader. Many senior leaders have their own institutions and strongholds,” said political commentator Prakash Bal.
“There is no cohesion or a leader who can build the party together and it is difficult for the Congress to fight elections on its own,” he said. There is no organization at the grassroots level.
However, senior Congress leader and former CM Ashok Chavan said there was no confusion in the party, and blamed the BJP.
“No, it is not that there is any confusion within the party. Even during the MLC elections, the BJP had tried to get cross-voting done. It’s not hidden anymore. This is BJP’s strategy to split votes and create confusion. He said, ‘The same experiment happened in Nashik and it is a serious issue. Things should have been discussed and resolved while giving the form, but it didn’t happen and we are working on it.”
lack of discipline’
Several Congress leaders ThePrint spoke to said the lack of adequate supervision or involvement from the party’s central leadership has led to the creation of various power centers in Maharashtra.
He said, ‘The discipline that was needed in the party is not there. If there are incidents of disobedience, the high command will have to act… It is not happening,” said a third Congress leader.
He said that no action has been taken against MLAs who allegedly cross-voted during the MLC elections last year despite the All India Congress Committee (AICC) ordering an inquiry and sending a report to the party leadership. “Lack of action encourages people like Satyajit,” he said.
During the MLC elections in June last year, seven Congress MLAs allegedly cross polling The party’s first-choice candidate, Chandrakant Handore, failed to be elected, while its second candidate, Bhai Jagtap, won, leaving the party in embarrassment.
He further said that the responsibility of the present state of Congress is not only of Patole and it is the collective failure of all the senior leaders of the party.
“Speculation about Satyajit Tambe was going on since a month when Fadnavis even hinted during an event publicly In front of Thorat that they are seeing Satyajit,” he said. But no one picked up. It’s sad.
This time though, the Disciplinary Action Committee of the Congress took action against the Tambe father-son duo. Satyajit has been suspended for six years, while Sudhir Tambe has been suspended pending investigation.
Last week Nagpur MLA Ashish Deshmukh shot one letter Blaming State Congress President Patole for the party’s disappointment today, the party high command, especially Satyajit Tambe rebelled.
“In June 2022, Handore was the first-choice candidate, but Bhai Jagtap got the votes by defying the order. At least 10 MLAs were absent during the floor test on July 04, 2022 and hence the Shinde government got an easy majority, and Satyajit Tambe’s rebellion further embarrassed the party.
During the floor test of the Shinde-led government, there were 10 Congress MLAs, including Ashok Chavan and Dheeraj Deshmukh. absent As they could not make it in time, which left the party red in the face.
,Edited by Githalakshmi Ramanathan)
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