Senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat on Tuesday quit as the party’s legislative leader, alleging highhandedness of the state unit president Nata Patole. He sent his resignation to party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge a few days ago, said leaders in the know. The crisis has cropped up at a time when the party is celebrating its good performance in the legislative council elections and is preparing to fight an Assembly by-election in Pune.

Thorat’s resentment stems from the matters related to a controversy over the Nashik graduates’ constituency elections to the state upper house. His nephew Satyajeet Tambe, who was elected with a handsome margin, has alleged that Patole did not give him the party’s AB (authorisation) form in order to create a bad name for him, his father Dr Sudhir Tambe and his maternal uncle Thorat. The uncle also reciprocated Satyajeet’s feeling, saying that he was deeply upset over the internal politics of the state Congress. Patole has denied the allegations and told media personnel that he had no idea about Thorat’s resignation. He also demanded to see the letter Thorat wrote to the party high command against him.