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Maharashtra elections 2019: Sanjay Nirupam says won’t campaign for Congress
Nirupam, a former chief of the Mumbai Congress, made the decision after a name he recommended didn’t make it to the party’s list of candidates.
Just weeks ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, the differences within the Mumbai unit of the Congress were out in the open on Thursday when senior Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said he won’t be part of the poll campaign.
Nirupam, a former chief of the Mumbai Congress, made the decision after a name he recommended didn’t make it to the party’s list of candidates. “It seems Congress Party doesn’t want my services anymore. I had recommended just one name in Mumbai for Assembly election. Heard that even that has been rejected. As I had told the leadership earlier, in that case I will not participate in poll campaign. Its my final decision,” Nirupam tweeted.
He, however, didn’t specify the candidate he sought tickets for. The Congress hasn’t yet announced all the candidates for the Mumbai assembly seats.
In another tweet, he hoped that the day has not yet come to say “good bye to party” but warned that the way the “leadership is behaving” it doesn’t seem far away.
Last month, actress-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar quit the Congress six months after joining the party and blamed “petty in-house politics” for the decision. Matondkar had written a letter to then Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora against Nirupam and his aides. The letter she claimed was leaked to the media.
Nirupam had hit out at Deora after Matondkar’s letter became public and claimed that “young leader who desires to stabilise party at national level has released copies of complaint letter”. Deora did hit back saying that the party is bigger than any individual.
The Mumbai Congress is faction-ridden and Nirupam and Deora often don’t see eye to eye. Deora had succeded Nirupam as the president of the Mumbai Congress but he too resigned from the post in July this year. Eknath Gaikwad, a former member of Parliament, is the current chief of Mumbai Congress.
Deora’s resignation came after the Congress’ s dismal performance in Mumbai in the Lok Sabha polls. The party failed to win even a single of the six seats in Mumbai.
Nirupam was the Congress candidate from the Mumbai North West constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He lost to Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar by over two lakh votes.
