A HUSHED blame game has started in the Maharashtra Congress after the resignation of former chief minister Ashok Chavan from the party, close on the heels of two other leaders quitting the state unit.
At least two senior leaders said Monday that the high command had failed to address the concerns of party leaders like Chavan, and said there should be “instrospection” on why people were leaving.
However, others pointed to the twin threats hanging over the heads of many leaders – of probes by Central agencies, and of uncertainty about their own political futures. And that no amount of mollycoddling would have guaranteed their allegiance to the party.
In its official reaction on Chavan leaving the party, the Congress laid the blame at his and the BJP’s door, suggesting that he had succumbed to the pressure of the cases against him.
Announcing his resignation Monday, Chavan was silent on his political future and refrained from attacking the Congress. “I’m not going to criticise anyone. It’s not in my nature to air my grievances in public,” he said.
Senior leader Sanjay Nirupam, who called Chavan an “indispensable” leader, blamed his exit on the “behaviour” of state Congress leaders. “Ashok Chavan was definitely an asset to the party. Some are calling him a liability, some are blaming the Enforcement Directorate. All these are knee-jerk reactions. In reality, he was troubled by the behaviour of one particular senior Congress leader from Maharashtra. He had at various times alerted the party senior leadership about his concerns. Had his complaints been taken seriously, this moment would not have arisen.”
Nirupam added: “He is a skilled, resourceful organiser with a mass following. The entire leadership witnessed his capabilities in 2022, when the Bharat Jodo Yatra crossed Nanded district over four days… No one can compensate for him. It was our responsibility to take care of him.”
Former Mumbai Congress chief and MLC Bhai Jagtap said the central leadership must introspect on the reasons behind senior leaders quitting the party. “Till only a few months ago, the party stood strong in Mumbai and Maharashtra. The central leadership must seriously think about what has happened in these past few months that senior leaders are quitting. This is not good for the party, it creates panic in the minds of our workers,” he said, hinting that the blame lay with the incumbent party presidents of Mumbai and Maharashtra.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, in fact, was the focus of ire of most state leaders who spoke in Chavan’s favour Monday. Patole, who crossed over from the BJP to the Congress, has had a prickly relationship with senior Congress leaders, attributed to his brusque nature.
Reacting to Chavan’s resignation, Patole said Monday: “The Congress has given a lot to many leaders. It is unfortunate that today, when the party is fighting to save democracy and the Constitution, leaders who have got everything from it are quitting the party and its ideology. Who is going where, for what? The public is watching.”
Last year, senior state Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat complained to the high command about being “humiliated” by Patole over the election of Thorat’s nephew Satyajeet Tambe as an MLC, while contesting as an Independent. The state Congress leadership had not viewed this kindly.
However, other Congress insiders said much water has flown under the bridge since then, and that the high command has been alert to the concerns of senior leaders lately.
They point to the fact that, in June 2023, when Chavan met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge demanding reforms in the state unit and suggesting measures to improve the party’s performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he was heard out for over three hours and his concerns given due respect.
Two months later, Chavan was made a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), replacing Balasaheb Thorat. Then, in December 2023, he was deputed by the party leadership to hold seat-sharing talks for Maharashtra within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
The party had done everything it could to assuage Chavan, despite increasing concerns about his “commitment” to the party, the leaders said.
Speculations about Chavan quitting the party and joining the BJP – which hasn’t happened yet – have been around since July 2022, when, during the trust vote against the Eknath Shinde government, he arrived late along with seven other Congress MLAs, and wasn’t allowed into the Assembly to vote. The charge was that he did this deliberately to help the Shinde-led BJP-Sena faction win the trust vote.
Ashok Chavan talks to the media as he resigned from the Indian National Congress (INC) on Monday, at Churchgate in Mumbai on 12 February 2024. Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee.
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