Maha political crisis: Feud in Congress intensifies after collapse of MVA govt

The recent developments in the Maharashtra Congress have intensified a feud within the party with some senior leaders approaching the high command with complaintsAlleged crossvoting by the party MLAs in the MLC polls party ministersrsquo mute consent to the renaming of Aurangabad and Osmanabad and absence of about a dozen party legislators in the confidence vote of the Eknath ShindeDevendra Fadnavis government have escalated troubles in the Congress According to information received by midday things have come to such a pass that the Congress high command is mulling sending an observera senior leader to Mumbai soon Congress Maharashtra unitrsquos working presidents Arif Naseem khan and Chandrakant Handore met Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on WednesdayAlso read Maharashtra political crisis Shiv Sena battle spills over to local pollsCrossvoting in MLC pollsHandore was a victim of crossvoting in the MLC polls because despite being the partyrsquos priority candidate who was allotted 27 firstpreference votes he polled only 22 The partyrsquos second candidate Bhai Jagpat unexpectedly won on the basis of secondpreference votes despite getting fewer firstpreference votes The MLC polls followed a nineday rebellion in the Shiv Sena which won two seats The rebellion ended with the exit of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of which the Congress was a partner since 2019On Wednesday former chief minister and party MLA Prithviraj Chavan demanded action in the crossvoting matter Khan and Handore have also expressed their concerns before Gandhi Congressrsquos general secretary Zakir Ahmed told midday ldquoPrithviraj Chavan ji is our senior leader and the demand he has raised with the high command is our collective voice The people in Congress want that a Dalit leader like Handore ji who is Mumbairsquos former mayor former minister and working president gets justicerdquoHandore tweeted that he has demanded action against the MLAs who have betrayed the party ldquoI was partyrsquos Number 1 candidate yet some MLAs crossvotedrdquo he statedKhan said they discussed the matters that concerned Mumbai and MaharashtraState Congress president Nana Patole who was Delhi on Thursday to meet party bosses later tweeted that the high command has taken the defeat of a Dalit leader Handorein the MLC polls very seriously The high command does not approve of the defeat of a Dalit leader and has taken it seriously It will examine the defeat and take a definite action against the culprits he stated furtherAntisecular agendaThe second incident that has seized the attention of the Congress high command is the renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv Sources said the Delhi bosses had asked the ministers to walk out from the meeting if the proposal came up for consideration in the Cabinet meeting despite their opposition Two ministers albeit junior than many others in the Congress rank walked out in protest but returned to the meeting after a symbolic gestureA senior Congress leader said questions have been raised over the casual approach of the Congress legislative party which didnrsquot brief the ministers in a precabinet meeting which turned out to be the last for the Uddhav Thackeray government ldquoIn the first place the proposal shouldnrsquot have been considered because it was against the partyrsquos secular credentials and the common minimum programme that was agreed upon by the MVA constituentsrdquoA leader who attended a gathering at a senior ministerrsquos residence a night before the Cabinet meeting said ldquoWhen apprised of the development and the Senarsquos insistence to get a lastminute proposal approved the high command directed that the ministers walk out when it comes up Barring two all other ministers defied the partyrsquos directiverdquo he saidMissing for trust voteThe absence of about a dozen party MLAs during the trust vote on July 4 has set tongues wagging They arrived after the Assembly doors were shut for polling Some MLAs including Bandra East representative Zeeshan Siddique clarified that they requested the speaker to allow them entry because head count for the MVA hadnrsquot started yet On the reason for the delay some MLAs said they were stuck in traffic The party high command has scrutinised senior leader and former minister Ashok Chavanrsquos statement that since the Speakerrsquos poll a day before had given the government 164 votes their Congress MLAs presence or absence wouldnrsquot have made any difference Chavan clarified that they missed the vote because they assumed that as per the house tradition the head count would begin after the speeches However the division of votes took place before the speeches were made that day