New Delhi/Mumbai: On a day when all 12 Congress ministers in Maharashtra, including 10 who took oath on Monday, called on Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former party president Rahul Gandhi for their blessings and to discuss the party strategy in the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, back in Maharashtra supporters of three-term Congress legislator Sangram Thopte from Bhor constituency resigned from various party posts and damaged the party office in Pune city.
Thopte's supporters from Bhor, Mulshi and Velhe tesils said their leader was assured ministerial berth by the leadership but his name was dropped at the behest of certain vested interests in the party.
Supporters of party legislator PN Patil from Karvir seat in Kolhapur district also expressed serious displeasure for not getting inducted in the cabinet. A veteran party leader and former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's close confidant, Patil, has hinted that he would take up the issue with the high command.
Meanwhile, newly-sworn in Congress ministers called on Rahul and Sonia separately at their residences and took their advice on the policies they should vigorously pursue in the Shiv Sena-led coalition government. They were advised to work closely with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the partner in the elections, to quickly implement their joint poll promises, a Congress leader said.
The ministers were accompanied to the residences of the two Gandhis by Congress General Secretary in charge of Maharashtra, Mallikarjun Kharge, senior Congress leader KC Venugopal and AICC secretary Ashish Dua. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also visited Rahul at his residence after the meeting.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi with the party ministers in the Maharashtra Government at her residence in Delhi on Tuesday
