1 week Ago By Anurag Bende
Pune: Infighting in the Pune unit of Congress refuses to die down with a section of workers led by city chief Arvind Shinde complaining to seniors against Kasba MLA Ravindra Dhangekar for allegedly promoting his own agenda rather than give importance to the party’s core ideology in the run up to the state polls. It may be noted that the differences between the two factions had started before the Lok Sabha elections. Recently, members of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) held a review meeting in Pune to discuss party activities in west Maharashtra — ahead of the upcoming assembly polls.
The meeting was chaired by party’s state in-charge Ramesh Chennithala. Shinde and his supporters put forth the complaint that Dhangekar was not participating in party work actively. They said if the MLA was not serious about working for Congress, the committee should consider changing the candidate for Kasba assembly constituency.
When approached, Shinde refused to name Dhangekar, but confirmed that complaints against ‘some’ Congress officebearers had been raised before MPCC members. He said, “I do not want to take anybody’s name. However, we have voiced our concern and requested that the committee review aspiring candidates’ participation in party work over the last few years.
Those absent for even 50% of the party’s events should not get a ticket.” Shinde further said, “There are ‘some’ members who are busy pushing their personal agenda and are not promoting the Congress ideology. They have not even displayed photos of senior members, like Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi, on their posters.
They have not participated in the party’s activities over the last many months.” Interestingly, one section of Congress workers who are against Shinde had earlier approached Chennithala with a complaint letter to remove him from the city unit chief ’s post. The other camp, of which Dhangekar is a part, claimed that Shinde and his supporters had not worked for the party during the Lok Sabha election campaigns and, hence, action should be taken against him.
So far, senior members of Congress had not taken any steps to resolve the differences. TOI tried to contact Dhangekar over phone for his reaction to Shinde’s complaint, but he was not available for comment till the time of going to press. We also published the following articles recently Maharashtra assembly elections will be held in November, hints CM Eknath Shinde Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde indicated that assembly elections might occur in November.
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