Mumbai: A day after former Maharashtra chief minister and Nanded MLA Ashok Chavan joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress state unit has gone into a damage control mode. It has been calling up every one of its MLAs, holding meetings with alliance partners, and organising urgent legislative party meetings to prevent the possibility of more defections, ThePrint has learnt.
With Chavan’s exit, the Congress has 43 MLAs in Maharashtra’s 288-member assembly. The BJP, meanwhile, has hinted at more such defections.
To keep its flock together, the Congress has been calling its legislators, with Ramesh Chennithala, the All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Maharashtra, saying that he has spoken to all party MLAs. “Other than Ashok Chavan, no one will go,” Chennithala told the media Tuesday.
Party sources said that the state leadership has held a meeting in Nanded — Chavan’s home ground — to prevent more defections there. Chennithala, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad, Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, and senior Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat, Prithviraj Chavan, Satej Patil, Manikrao Thakre, Naseem Khan, and Yashomati Thakur were among those who attended the meeting Tuesday.
“We think a couple of MLAs who are close to Chavan might switch sides, if not now, then in some days,” a leader, who attended the meeting, told ThePrint. “There is (also) pressure on local-level corporation leaders to switch sides but they have refused to go with Chavan.”
The Congress will also hold a legislative party meeting in Mumbai Friday, where all of the party MLAs are expected to be present, another senior Congress leader told ThePrint, adding that the party will also host a dinner for its MLAs on the night before this meeting.
Chennithala also met with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies — Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) Uddhav Thackeray, and Sharad Pawar, head of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) — earlier this week. According to party insiders, these were regular meetings of the MVA allies.
“Ashok Chavan was one of the leaders heading seat-sharing talks for us. Now that he is gone, we will have to make other arrangements,” the second leader said.
Chavan’s is the third exit from Maharashtra Congress in a month — two prominent leaders, former MP and ex-Union minister Milind Deora and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, left the party earlier this month, claiming they were “unhappy with the party’s high command”. Like Chavan, both leaders have joined the ruling coalition — Siddique has joined the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party while Deora has joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Chavan’s decision to switch parties comes days before the Rajya Sabha polls on 27 February. It also comes months before two major elections — the general election in April-May and the assembly elections later in October.
Although the former CM has said he has no expectations from the BJP in terms of party posts, BJP sources had told ThePrint that he could be nominated for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Also Read: Going, going, gone — another Congress dynasty crumbles as Ashok Chavan resigns from party
What Chavan’s exit means for Congress
Ashok Chavan’s exit could deal a heavy blow to the Congress in Marathwada Nanded, where he wields considerable influence.
In 2019, Chavan lost the Nanded parliamentary seat to BJP’s Prataprao Patil Chikhlikar by a margin of over 40,000 votes. At that time, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), Prakash Ambedkar’s party which is holding seat-sharing talks with the MVA, is believed to have played a major role in cutting into Congress votes.
But in October of the same year, Chavan went on to win the Nanded assembly seat, further cementing his hold.
Soon after the former chief minister’s exit, several Congress leaders publicly affirmed their support to the Congress. Among these were Malad West MLA Aslam Shaikh, former Mumbai chief Ashok ‘Bhai’ Jagtap, and Amravati MLA and former minister Yashomati Thakur.
I want to clarify that I am not leaving the Congress Party (@INCIndia). I urge the media to refrain from spreading false news about my shift to any other party. Let's maintain decorum and avoid creating unnecessary confusion. Thank you all for your understanding.
— Aslam Shaikh, INC 🇮🇳 (@AslamShaikh_MLA) February 12, 2024
भाई जगताप काँग्रेस सोडणार अश्या वावड्या काही नतद्रष्ट पसरवत आहेत…
मी त्यांना सांगू इच्छितो की माझ्या विद्यार्थी दशेपासून खांद्यावर घेतलेला हा काँग्रेस चा तिरंगा मी कधीही खाली ठेवणार नाही..
पद, लालच आणि फायद्याकरिता माझा पिंड बनलेला नाही.. आणि मी कोणाच्या बापाला घाबरतही…
— Bhai Jagtap – भाई जगताप (@BhaiJagtap1) February 12, 2024
जे गेले ते का गेले याचे कारण स्पष्ट आहे. भारतीय जनता पक्षाने आता जी श्वेता पत्रिका काढली आहे त्या श्वेतापत्रिकेच्या माध्यमातून काही लोकांना ब्लॅकमेल करण्याचा प्रयत्न सुरू आहे. त्याचाच परिणाम आपल्याला दिसतो आहे. भारतीय जनता पक्षात आता अन्य पक्षातीलच नेते अधिक झाले आहेत तरीही ते… pic.twitter.com/Kymea4tudr
— Adv. Yashomati Thakur (@AdvYashomatiINC) February 12, 2024
Two leaders rumoured to be potential defectors also told ThePrint that they were with the Congress.
“Chennithala personally called and asked about the rumour. But I categorically denied it and clarified my position. The reason my name was being floated in the media circles was because of my old relations with Ashok Chavan,” this leader said.
Likewise, the second leader also confirmed that he had a similar conversation with the state leadership.
“Yes, I personally had a long chat with the seniors. And I told them that since my family has strong roots in the Congress, I would stay in the party. And we all will be present in the meeting called on Friday,” the leader said.
Despite these affirmations, questions about Chavan’s decision to leave remain, with speculations rife about the leader’s growing dissatisfaction because of Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole’s leadership.
Patole, however, brushed away these allegations. “We are used to Ashok Chavan’s nature,” he told the media after Chavan joined the BJP. “He wants to be in a leadership position. He was been given a lot by the party, sometimes even by ignoring more senior leaders. But now that he has gone, he will have to sit in the back row. It will be a sad situation for him.”
The Congress, meanwhile, is confident that Chavan’s exit will have no bearing on its performance in the Rajya Sabha polls this month. Six Rajya Sabha seats are up for grabs in Maharashtra. While the ruling coalition was expected to win five of these seats, the Congress was expected to win the sixth comfortably.
“There won’t be any cross-voting during the RS polls. The MVA will win it,” Chennithala told ThePrint. “If there’s cross-voting, then they will be expelled for six years.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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