New Delhi: The Congress high command on Tuesday sought an explanation from its top Maharashtra leaders after their alleged cross-voting led to the defeat of a party nominee in the June 20 Legislative Council polls. According to sources, all the top state leaders and ministers in the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress MVA coalition government have been called to seek an explanation for the MLC poll loss.
As per the sources, around 7 out of the 44 Congress MLAs in the state assembly cross-voted on Monday, leading to the defeat of party nominee Chandrakant Handore, state working president. The other Congress nominee, Mumbai unit chief Bhai Jagtap, however, won. The two leaders had been named by party chief Sonia Gandhi as nominees on June 8 based on feedback from veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, who had met both chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai.
Party insiders said the Congress had got two MLC seats as per an arrangement within the ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance in Maharashtra and was banking on the support of the other two parties for a smooth sail for its candidates. However, infighting in the state Congress unit caused the poll loss, said sources. “We are concerned over cross-voting and will seek an explanation from the state leaders who were in charge of the MLC polls.
It seems to be a case of personal disliking for a particular leader,” said an AICC functionary. According to party insiders, the MLC poll nominations were an attempt to strike a balance in the various factions in the state unit. Handore was the choice of Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole while Jagtap was the preference of former state unit chief Ashok Chavan.
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Both the leaders had assured Kharge that the party nominees would win the MLC polls. Congress Legislative Party leader Balasahab Thorat, who is also a minister in the alliance government, was directly supervising the MLC polls and will have to explain the poll loss. “Thorat has called a meeting of MLAs in Mumbai to discuss the issue. Let us see what happens,” said the AICC functionary.
The Maharashtra Congress has been trying to curb infighting for the past several months. In April, around 20 Congress lawmakers had met party chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi to register their complaints against the Sena and NCP as well as their own leaders. Most of the complaints related to allocation of development funds in their areas and clearance of developmental projects.
The BJP has 106 MLAs in the 288-member House and has the strength to comfortably get four of its nominees elected to the Legislative Council. The cross-voting by 7 Congress lawmakers might have been influenced by the state BJP, which has been trying to dent the ruling alliance and recently trumped Maha Vikas Aghadi in the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls.
After the Rajya Sabha polls, even Sharad Pawar had acknowledged the role played by BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis. The developments came amidst reports that Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde was missing along with 12 other party lawmakers. Keeping this in mind, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray too called a meeting of party MLAs in Mumbai.
