Such disoriented and unorganised has become the situation of the Congress party in Maharashtra that barely three days before the monsoon session of the state legislature, the party has no clarity on who will be the group leader of the legislative party in the state assembly. Neither the central leadership of the party nor the state party has informed the legislative party about the selection of the new group leader.
Following the resignation of former Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil from the MLA’s post the Congress legislative party is left with no leader. Both at central and state level, the party is still struggling to recover from the drubbing it received at the 2019 general elections and the issue of chosing the new leader is pending for over 15 days now.
“The decision to chose the group leader will be announced from Delhi. The central leadership has been apprised of the situation and decision will be taken soon,” said Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.
The state party leadership will be meeting in Mumbai on June 13 and 14 to discuss the Lok Sabha poll results in Maharashtra. It has already held similar meeting for Marathwada and north Maharashtra regions and next meeting will discuss Konkan, Mumbai and western Maharashtra.
“We have no clue about what is going to happen in the assembly or who will be chosen the legislative party leader. This is the monsoon session and also the last before assembly polls. We need to be united and aggressive, but we do not know who is going to be our leader inside the house,” said a Congress MLA, on the condition of anonymity.
Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, senior Congressman Balasaheb Thorat, Vidarbha’s leader Vijay Vadettiwar are few of the names which are making rounds in the Congress circle. However no decision has yet been taken. Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan too had offered his resignation following the party’s loss in Lok Sabha. That issue too has not been decided yet.
