Fighting the odds and feuds within its local leadership, the Congress has decided to take on the BJP and Shiv Sena in the upcoming BMC polls
City Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam (left) said the meeting of the core team with senior leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda was held cordially
Fighting the odds and feuds within its local leadership, the Congress has decided to take on the BJP and Shiv Sena in the upcoming BMC polls.
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During a breakfast meeting on Wednesday, while senior party leaders asked party high command for correcting the functioning of the city unit and stop anti-party activities from a certain group, they also agreed to have a coalition with the NCP and Samajwadi Party, if need be.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s emissary Bhupinder Hooda had a discussion with Maharashtra and Mumbai leaders yesterday. Except the disgruntled ex-MP Gurudas Kamat, who has accused city Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam of sabotaging the party’s electoral prospects, all other seniors were present.
'Democratic party'
Hooda told mid-day that the Congress was a democratic party and it respected opinion of the rank and file. When asked if leaders complained against city Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, he said, “Matbhed jarur ho sakte hain lekin manbhed nahi (There could be difference of opinion, but there is no difference of sentiment). It’s our internal matter,” he said, adding that the party’s sentiment was to beat BJP and Sena in the BMC polls.
He said the possibility of having a pre-poll alliance with NCP and SP was also discussed, but no final decision was taken. “Our candidates will be selected by January 27 and 28 and we have decided to fight the elections bringing all (factions in the Congress) together,” he added. Nirupam said the meeting of the core team was held cordially, in which all leaders expressed their views. “Primarily, we discussed alliance and candidate selection,” he said.
However, there were conflicting views from leaders who met Hooda earlier in the day and participated in a meeting later in the day. Some said they complained against Nirupam’s style of functioning and demanded high command’s intervention, while others said there was widespread sentiment against Kamat’s shenanigans.
Among the leaders present for the breakfast meeting with Hooda were state Congress president Ashok Chavan Narayan Rane, Naseem Khan, Kripashankar Singh, Milind Deora and Janardan Chandurkar. Chandurkar is said to have talked openly against Nirupam at the open session.
“We asked for distributing candidature on the basis of electoral merit instead of personal connections with the decision-makers. We told Hooda that all was not well in Mumbai as far as party’s functioning is not concerned,” a leader told mid-day.
What about Kamat?
Another leader said that he was happy that the party has taken complaints against Nirupam seriously and assured a corrective action. “The high command may not depend entirely on Nirupam now and bring in new mechanism to sort things out,” he said.
However, two other senior leaders said that Hooda was also given to understand that what Kamat was doing amounted to anti-party activities. “Sending out messages to party workers and going to the media with a statement that Hooda would deal with Nirupam doesn’t augur well for the party ahead of a crucial poll,” said the leader.
Earlier in the day, Kamat told mid-day that he was in a party function in Udaipur and return to Mumbai on Wednesday evening to meet Hooda.
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