Conspiracy to throw me out of Congress: Satyajeet Tambe

While Tambe did not explicitly name Patole for being responsible, his attack was evidently directed at him. Sources said, Patole has been under criticism internally by senior state leaders.

Tambe said that upon informing the state Congress headquarters about the same, “we were sent another AB form with the name of my father (Sudhir Tambe)”. He, however, did not name any leader when asked to name the person who had hatched the “conspiracy”.

“Despite this, I filed my nomination mentioning Indian National Congress but since I was not given the AB form, my candidature was termed as that of an Independent,” he said. Tambe added that he will work as an Independent MLC in the future, raise issues pertaining to youth and work in support of the old pension scheme. He also said he has never left the Congress party.

Tambe said that after filing his nomination for the Nashik Division Graduates’ constituency, the high command in Delhi had asked him to write a letter seeking support and publicly apologise. “I was ready to do so and even wrote a letter to (party in-charge for Maharashtra) H K Patil on January 19. But the state unit was already discussing support to another candidate and terming us as traitors and backstabbers,” he said.

Tambe said workers of all parties – including Congress, NCP, BJP, Shiv Sena, MNS, RPI and RSP – had supported him in the election and he was thankful to them.

On the Congress suspending him and his father Sudhir Tambe, the MLC said they were not even served the showcause notice and suspended directly.

State Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe, however, said that Tambe was sent a blank AB form and Thorat’s OSD Sachin Gunjal had even acknowledged the same.