Mumbai: The Congress leadership has taken cognizance of the differences between Mukul Wasnik, State in charge of the Central Election Committee, and Ashok Chavan, president of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, and changed the candidate in Chandrapur Lok Sabha seat.
The differences surfaced after party workers complained about party nominee Vinayak Bangade to Chavan. The state unit chief pleaded his helplessness in the matter, in an audio clip that went viral on Saturday and sparked of speculation about the latter quitting the party.
In the clip, Chavan was purportedly heard saying, “I am considering tendering my resignation, since nobody seems to be listening to me.” This created a scare in the top echelons and a spooked high command replaced Bangade, Wasnik’s nominee, by Suresh Dhanorkar.
Dhanorkar, who was a sitting MLA of the Shiv Sena, recently joined the Congress and is known to be close to Chavan. So, on the face of it, this is a victory for Chavan but the party leadership is not too happy with him for pushing the names of outsiders. According to a source, Chavan had recommended Dhanorkar’s name even before he had joined the party.
“There is a procedure. First, the person who wishes to switch sides should join the Congress and then the party would consider nominating him. Since this was not the case, Wasnik, who heads the state central election committee, awarded the ticket to Bangade,” the source explained.
“Several complaints have been received by the High Command against Chavan. Being state unit president, he failed to handle defections from the party. He was also not inclined to press for the Ahmednagar seat, which the Nationalist Congress Party was reluctant to part with,” said the source who has access to CEC meetings.
Likewise, Chavan wanted Arjun Khotkar, a Sena leader and minister of state for animal husbandry, to join the Congress and be given a ticket in Jalna against BJP state wing president Raosaheb Danve. However, at the last moment, Khotkar changed his plan and remained in the Sena.
