Sujay Vikhe Patil’s exit shows Cong in disarray: Analysts

Just two days after his son Sujay Vikhe Patil quit the Congress and joined the BJP openly defying him, Radha Krishna Vikhe-Patil, the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, said on Thursday that he wouldn’t resign from his post. He also asserted that he would keep away from campaigning for the party’s ally, NCP, in Ahmednagar – a constituency Sujay wanted to contest from.

On Wednesday, senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat had asked Vikhe-Patil to clarify his position. Vikhe-Patil said he wasn’t bound to answer Thorat. This one example explains the story of the state Congress – over the last few weeks – marked by defections, infighting and a failure to stitch together solid alliances with smaller parties such as Prakash Ambedkar’s Bahujan Vanchit Aghadi (BVA) and the Samajwadi Party. Add to this, the party’s struggle to find candidates for seats that have become BJP bastions. 

In a boost to City Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, party president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday approved appointments on key posts. Nirupam’s supporters and close aides bagged plum posts while many from the opposing camps like those of former city Congress chief the late Gurudas Kamat have been sidelined. Nirupam has been accused of a ‘unilateral’ style of functioning, with allegations that a large section of party workers was upset with him, The Congress on Thursday appointed Clive Dias in northwest Mumbai replacing Baldev Khosa. In North East Mumbai, Pranil Nair replaced Veluswami Nadu while in North Mumbai, Ashok Sutrale has been reappointed. Dias, Nair, and Sutrale are known fro be from the Nirupam camp. The party has appointed two working presidents for each district too, keeping in mind the elections. The party also appointed eight vice presidents, nine general secretaries, and eight secretaries. Niruoma supporters like George Abraham, Vishwa Bandhu Rai, and Shiva Shetty have been given key posts as part of the new appointments. Swami who has been removed as a district president will now be a vice president along with Javed Khan, Yusuf Abrahani, Nairmala Samant Prabhawalkar, and Virendra Bakshi. Among secretaries and general secretaries, Manoj Nair, Suryakant Mishra, Santosh Singh, Bipin Vichare, Sanjeev Bagdi, Babulal Vishwakarma, and Mahesh Malik have been appointed among others. “This is a complete Nirupam list. All those from the Kamat camp have been sidelined and this will send a wrong message ahead of the elections,” said a Congress leader from the Kamat camp.

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