While the statements of Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole are keeping the political temperature rising externally, internal disagreements in the party’s State unit have also escalated. Interestingly, all State leaders have joined hands to pressure State unit in-charge H.K. Patil to drop the idea of calling in recorded voice to party workers asking them to suggest their choice for district president posts.
Three days ago, the party held a meeting of all its senior leaders to discuss the strategy for the coming polls to zilla parishads and municipal corporations. In that meeting, all senior leaders asked Mr. Patil to cancel this new experiment, claiming it would damage the party organisation and has a danger of popping up undeserving individuals at the helm.
Senior leaders including Mr. Patole, Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Ashok Chavan and majority of others have voiced concern against this experiment and a heated discussion took place in the party meeting. “It was decided ultimately to complete this exercise within next 15 days and if that does not happen, then it will be deferred,” a senior party leader privy to discussions told The Hindu .
As per this experiment, a recorded call is made to the district committee members asking them to give their choice for the district president post. This call merely seeks answers without going into merits of the leader and the receiver may answer any name of his/her choice. The experiment was undertaken to know the opinion of committee workers. As of now, around 20 districts have received such calls.
The leader said the exercise would never yield good results. “How can one decide the merit of that particular person? And if majority name a person, but higher ups want another person, then it will create unnecessary friction in the organisation,” he said.
The leaders pointed out in the meeting that the said exercise was delaying the party’s preparations for the local body polls due to lack of clarity within the organisation.
