Exhorting leaders to sideline groupism and infighting, newly appointed Maharashtra Congress committee president Balasaheb Thorat on Thursday said the party would be promoting new, young faces in the Assembly polls.
After officially taking charge from former chief minister Ashok Chavan, Mr. Thorat, accompanied by the five newly-appointed working presidents, said, “The party faced similar troubles in 1978,79 and 80. But we won. The Congress is still in the minds of common people and we have to reach out to them with new vigour.”
“The results of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections can be different. A number of people are expressing concern over the EVMs. We also demand that ballot paper be used for Assembly elections,” he said. Earlier, a number of speakers, including the Assembly campaign committee head and former MP Nana Patole called on party workers to participate in the nationwide movement against EVMs to begin from August 9.
Asked about those who quit the party, Mr. Thorat, without naming former Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, said, “Those who left have created a vacancy in the party. And those in the party who wish to reach to new heights, should take this as a golden opportunity.” He said his emphasis would be on approaching students and youngsters.
Reacting to newly-appointed State unit BJP chief Chandrakant Patil’s comments that Maharashtra will soon be free of Congress, Mr. Thorat said, “He calls himself a blank envelop and says he will go wherever the address on it indicates. This person does not even know his own future and wants to predict the future of Congress.”
Dirty tricks by BJP: Kharge
Senior Congress leader in-charge of Maharashtra Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the BJP over its attempts to destabilise Congress-JD (S) government in Karnataka. “On the one hand the BJP talks of a moral high, and on the other it is using all dirty tricks. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis is also aiding in these tricks,” he alleged.
He accused the chief minister of trying to dislodge the democratically-elected coalition government in Karnataka and alleged that elected Congress legislators from Karnataka were being kept in captivity in Mumbai
Mr. Kharge was speaking at the congregation of the party workers at YB Chavan Auditorium where Balasaheb Thorat officially took charge as the state unit chief.
Mr. Kharge said that of the 13 MLAs, 12 were kept in Hotel Renaissance. “Where do they get so much money? All the MLAs are brought by a special flight. An MLA was with me till Wednesday night. He had been brought by a special flight on Thursday morning and has been hospitalised in room number 2 of St George Hospital. Nobody has been allowed to meet him by the police,” he said.
