PVA men head towards Cong

The rebel PVA corporators, who were apparently feeling uncomfortable ever since they left the Congress party, initiated a dialogue with the Congress leaders a few days back. The local Congress leaders responded positively with a view that they could recapture the municipal corporation by engineering split in the PVA.

Pawar, who was in the city on Friday, drove to the residence of former Mayor Vandana Chavan after attending a function in Chinchwad. The meeting which began at 9 pm lasted about an hour. The meeting was attended by 11 PVA corporators including Mukari Algude, Sheela Raut,Ramdas Pawar, Ajit Apte, Damu Kumbre, Suman Matyhwad, Chandrakant Kate, Shashikala Kumbhar, Batul Kazi, Shailaja Khedekar and John Paul.

The sources said the PVA corporators pledged their commitment to the Congress party saying that their signatures on the papers of formation of PVA were taken either by forcefully or by misleading them. Pawar, however, remained noncommittal on the formal entry of these corporators. He merely said that PVA corporators should cooperate with the Congress party.

The news of Pawar’s meeting with the PVA corporators evoked a sharp reaction among the Congressmen. A section of the Congress workers virtually gheraoed AICC spokesman V N Gadgil, Vitthal Tupe, MP and city Congress president Mohan Joshi at Congress Bhavan in the morning and expressed their strong opposition on the move to accommodate the PVA corporators. Gadgil, while pacifying the agitated workers, made it clear that party had not taken any formal decision on the issue. He, however, expressed his personal opinion that the PVA corporators should not be allowed to rejoin the party. Mohan Joshi also opined that loyal party workers must be encouraged by the leadership.

The memorandum submitted by party workers to Pawar and Gadgil demanded that the party leaders should not allow PVA corporators to come back to Congress since they had betrayed the party during the critical period. The memorandum also warns that the loyal Congress workers would ensure defeat of party candidates in the Assembly elections if PVA corporators were accommodated in the party fold.

Meanwhile, MPCC general secretary Gurunath Kulkarni, who was in the city today told The Indian Express that party leadership would take the decision on the issue by considering the political realities. Kulkarni admitted that several Congress workers had registered their complaints with him on the move. He, however, added in the same breath party could not afford to neglect the fact that BJP and Sena was growing in the city. Kulkarni also stated that party would be happy if it could manage to recapture the municipal corporation. The MPCC general secretary said he had asked city Congress president Mohan Joshi to restructure the ward committees and city committee as well.

No PVA leader was available for comments on Pawar’s meeting with the corporators.