Nashik, Feb 4 (PTI) Satyajit Tambe, newly-elected member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from Nashik division graduates’ constituency, on Saturday alleged that some state Congress leaders conspired to deny him ticket.
Wrong candidature forms were provided to his father, incumbent Congress MLC Sudhir Tambe, and it was all part of a conspiracy to drive his family out of the party, he claimed at a press conference here.
Sudhir Tambe, whom the Congress had given ticket again, withdrew from the race at the last moment. His son Satyajit, former state Youth Congress chief, filed papers, virtually rebelling against the party, and won as an independent.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole had said on Friday, a day after the results of the polls, that the father-son duo had betrayed the party.
“Though I have worked for the Congress for the last 22 years, I was denied the opportunity to serve the organization after the end of my tenure in the Youth Congress in 2022 because my father was an MLC,” Satyajit Tambe said at a press conference.
He was asked to contest election in his father’s place but he was reluctant as he wanted to work for the organization, he added.
“Later, my father asked me to contest the election in his place as it was the wish of many of our activists. I was in talks with our (Congress’s) in-charge (for Maharashtra) H K Patil.
“But the AB forms we received on January 12 were not of the Nashik graduates’ constituency but Aurangabad teachers’ constituency and Nagpur teachers’ constituency,” Satyajit alleged.
Both the forms were signed by the state Congress chief (Patole), he added.
AB nomination forms are provided by political parties to their official candidates.
His father’s name was announced as a candidate in Delhi at the eleventh hour, Satyajit said.
He later spoke to H K Patil and was even ready to tender apology on Patil’s advice thought he had not made any mistake, but then the Maha Vikas Aghadi (coalition of Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena) announced support for another candidate, he said.
“All this was part of a scripted conspiracy to deny me candidature, oust my family from Congress and to create problems for Balasaheb Thorat (his maternal uncle and senior party leader),” he said, without naming any leader.
What action the All India Congress Committee (AICC) would now take against the Maharashtra unit of the party, he asked.
He and his father were suspended from the party without giving them hearing, Satyajit further said.
“On the one hand our leader Rahul Gandhi works for `Nafarat Chhodo, Bharat Jodo’ but our state leaders are trying to separate us from the party,” he alleged.
To a question, he said that while he has been elected as an independent, he has not left the Congress.
He will seek implementation of the old pension scheme for government employees, Tambe said.
In the election for five Council seats, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi won three seats while the BJP bagged one. Tambe won as an independent, though the BJP had extended support to him. PTI COR KRK KRK
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