New Delhi : Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge is miffed over cross-voting by around seven party MLAs during the recent MLC polls in Maharashtra where the opposition MVA is preparing to upstage the ruling combine in the November assembly elections.
According to party insiders, Kharge may take strong action against the erring lawmakers following a report submitted by AICC in charge of Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala to AICC in charge of organization KC Venugopal.
“This is a serious issue and should be addressed adequately. The state unit has sent a report on the matter to the AICC. The high command will now take appropriate action,” senior Maharashtra Congress leader Charan Singh Sapra told ETV Bharat.
The setback for the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising Congress-Shiv Sena UBT-NCP-SP in the MLC polls came after the opposition alliance’s good performance in the Lok Sabha elections vis a vis the ruling Mahayuti comprising BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP.
Party insiders said the MVA was banking on cross-voting by some Shiv Sena and NCP lawmakers but lost one of the three seats it contested due to some Congress lawmakers cross-voting in favour of the Mahayuti, which won 9 MLC seats.
Though identifying the culprit MLAs who cross-voted in the recent MLC polls was not an easy job in a secret ballot, the needle of suspicion pointed at lawmakers like Zeeshan Siddiqui, Jitesh Antapurkar, Mohan Hambarde, Sulbha Khodke and Hiraman Khoshkar among others, said party insiders.
Though the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the western state by winning 13 out of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats, the grand old party had been plagued by the problem of cross-voting in the past as well.
In 2022, when the MVA was in power, around 7 out of the 44 Congress MLAs in the state assembly cross-voted leading to the defeat of party nominee Chandrakant Handore, state working president, in the MLC polls.
In 2023, the Congress Disciplinary Committee, upon instructions from Kharge had suspended MLC Dr Sudhir Tambe and initiated a probe after he did not file nomination for the ensuing MLC polls from the Nashik Division Graduates’ Constituency.
Instead, Satyajeet Tambe, son of Dr Tambe and a former leader of the Youth Congress who had been declared a rebel by the grand old party won as an independent candidate for the MLC polls with the help of the BJP.
According to party insiders, while the Congress needed to set its own house in order ahead of the crucial state elections, the MVA was elated over reported unease within the ruling Mahayuti.
“Today around four NCP Ajit Pawar leaders joined the NCP-Sharad Pawar group. This indicates unease within the NCP as several of its lawmakers are looking for greener pastures and may jump ship as the assembly polls draw closer. The BJP too is not happy with Ajit Pawar whose NCP had been dropped during the Union Cabinet formation. The BJP does not find the NCP useful any longer and this is breeding unease in the regional party,” said Sapra.
Recently Sharad Pawar’s relative Rohit Pawar had claimed that several NCP MLAs were in touch with him and may switch sides soon.
