MUMBAI: Infighting between Congress leaders on Thursday touched a new low after the warring groups led by city party chief Sanjay Nirupam and former MP Gurudas Kamat came to blows.
Party sources said State Congress president Ashok Chavan, senior leaders Kripashankar Singh, Nasim Khan, Gurudas Kamat, Narayan Rane and Janardan Chandurkar met party observer and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at a city hotel late on Wednesday night to discuss ticket distribution for the BMC elections. The meeting went on till 2 a.m. on Thursday.
A senior leader, requesting anonymity, said they have complained against Mr. Nirupam for not complying with procedures laid down for giving tickets to candidates on the party’s first list, which was released on January 31. “There are several seats where the district committee had suggested a particular name but tickets were given to someone else,” he added.
On Thursday morning, several party factions had gathered outside a hotel in Juhu, when a scuffle broke out among them. A party worker identified as Arif Saiyyed was injured and later hospitalised.
As the meetings with Mr. Hooda continued, Mr. Nirupam tweeted: “Kind attention:All media persons. There is no stay on first list of MPCC. It’s all false news being spread by some people having vested interest.” However, till late on Thursday, the party had not given official party forms to candidates for filing nominations.
As the civic polls near, differences between Mr. Nirupam and Mr. Kamat have come to the fore.
Recently, Mr. Kamat had sent an SMS to his supporters announcing his decision to distance himself from the civic election process due to the ‘negative approach’ adopted by the Mumbai Congress chief.
Mr. Nirupam claimed that the selection of candidates was being done as per the norms laid down by party’s vice president Rahul Gandhi.
