NCP ‘weakening’ Cong: Patole
Reacting, Ajit Pawar said that differences among coalition partners was not new and they would resolve it amicably.
NANA PATOLE SAID HE MET CONGRESS HIGH COMMAND DURING CHINTAN SHIVIR TO CONVEY THE STATE UNIT’S COMPLAINT AGAINST THE PAWAR-LED PARTY
NAGPUR: The Maharashtra unit of Congress has lodged a complaint with interim party president Sonia Gandhi against the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and its chief Sharad Pawar for weakening the grand old party and aiding Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), state Congress chief Nana Patole said on Monday.
Patole was referring to NCP’S decision to join hands with BJP at the Gondia zilla parishad elections last week. The NCP, which is in the ruling alliance in the state along with Shiv Sena and Congress, also sided with BJP in neighbouring Bhandara zilla parishad polls, but Congress managed to elect its president after emerging as the largest party.
Accusing the NCP of “backstabbing”, Patole said, “We prefer an enemy who attacks from the front.”
Patole said he met the party high command during the three-day Chintan Shivir in Rajasthan’s Udaipur to convey the state unit’s complaint against the Pawar-led party.
Congress joined the Maha Vikas Aghadi to keep the BJP away from power, but NCP’S actions show it has been strengthening the BJP and weakening the Congress, claimed Patole.
“We have conveyed our feelings to the party high command and sought their intervention,” he said, adding that
“If NCP continues to behave like this, we will not tolerate it.” NCP has been trying to
“weaken” the Congress in Maharashtra for the past twoand-a-half years, he claimed. “The Congress believes that friendship should be genuine…”
Reacting to Patole’s claims, NCP leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said that differences among coalition partners were not a new thing and they would resolve it amicably. “There is no reason for us to give it that much importance. Even we complain to the chief minister (Uddhav Thackeray) and (Sharad) Pawar saheb if required. It is not new,” Pawar said on Monday.
He said that the country has seen the NDA government of 24 parties, the UPA government, and even the Congress-ncp coalition was in power in Maharashtra for 15 years and differences used to arise even then.
“Differences do happen in a family and in the case of three families they are bound to happen. This is an internal issue and we will resolve it amicably. Whatever misunderstanding happened between us (NCP) and Nana Patole will be resolved,” the deputy chief minister said in response to a question.
In the Gondia ZP elections on May 10, BJP’S Pankaj Rahangdale was elected as the president, while NCP’S Yashwant Ganvir became the vice-president.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Bhandara, the Congress managed to split five BJP Zilla Parishad members, led by former MLA Charan Waghmare to elect Gangadhar Jibkate as the president.