Infighting in Mumbai Congress over assembly seats

The party’s Mumbai president, Varsha Gaikwad, had an argument with former city chief Ashok Jagtap during a meeting on Tuesday regarding candidate selection

Mumbai: Days after the Congress’s debacle in the Haryana assembly polls, which was attributed to infighting, among other reasons, the party’s Mumbai unit appears to be struggling with similar issues in the run-up to the Maharashtra elections next month.

Mumbai, India - Sept. 19, 2024: Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pande joins Indian National Congress in the presence of AICC Secretary U B Venkatesh and Mumbai Congress Chief Varsha Gaikwad at MRCC office, Azad Maidan, in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, September 19, 2024. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Senior leaders in the Mumbai Congress are divided over candidate selection for the upcoming polls, according to party insiders. The party’s Mumbai president, Varsha Gaikwad, had an argument with former city chief Ashok Jagtap during a meeting on Tuesday regarding candidate selection for constituencies including Dharavi, Sion-Koliwada, Versova, and Andheri West, among others, said the people cited above.

As part of its process for deciding candidates, the Congress has appointed a three-member committee for Mumbai, comprising Gaikwad, Jagtap, and former minister Aslam Shaikh. The panel has been tasked with deciding the top aspirants for each seat and sending the list to the Congress’s central screening committee in Delhi. Those cleared by the screening committee will get the candidature.

According to Congress insiders, the conflict began after Gaikwad pushed to recommend a single name for a few of the seats, including her family bastion Dharavi from where she wants to field her sister, Jyoti Gaikwad. However, Jagtap objected to it and insisted on recommending a panel of aspirants for each seat.

Varsha Gaikwad is a four-term MLA from the Dharavi assembly constituency. She resigned from the seat in June after winning the Lok Sabha elections from the Mumbai North Central constituency. Her father, Eknath Gaikwad, was also a three-term MLA from the Dharavi constituency.

In this backdrop, an argument took place between Gaikwad and Jagtap on Tuesday, Congress insiders revealed. Gaikwad was of the view that her sister Jyoti deserves the candidature in her absence as their family has been representing the seat since 1985, when her father was first elected from Dharavi.

Jagtap, on the other hand, was of the opinion that Jyoti used to live in Mulund and got active in the party only after Gaikwad was elected as an MP four months ago. Moreover, there are leaders such as Sandesh Kondvilkar and Sunil Ahire, who have been working for the party and deserve an opportunity, he argued.

The conflict was not limited to the Dharavi constituency. Gaikwad wanted to recommend only one name for other constituencies too—Ganesh Kumar Yadav from Sion-Koliwada, Saif Ahad Khan from Versova and Mohsin Haider from Andheri West constituency—which led to a clash. Khan is the son-in-law of Aslam Shaikh, who is part of the three-member committee and is considered close to Gaikwad.

Gaikwad also wanted to recommend a single name for the Mumbadevi, Malad West and Chandivali constituencies. Mumbadevi and Malad West are currently represented by the Congress’s Amin Patel and Aslam Shaikh, respectively, while Arif Naseem Khan lost the Chandivali seat in a close contest with the Shiv Sena’s Dilip Lande by 409 votes in 2019. There was a dispute over the candidature for these three seats too, but it was later resolved, party insiders said.

On his part, Jagtap suggested names such as Ravi Raja for Sion-Koliwada, Suresh Shetty and Avnish Singh for Versova, and Mehul Vora and former MLA Ashok Jadhav for Andheri West. Former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey, who joined the party last month, is also one of the aspirants for the Versova seat.

Furthermore, Jagtap wanted Rajesh Sharma’s name to be projected for the Vandre West constituency, but then Gaikwad approached former MP Priya Dutt and requested her to contest from the seat, the insiders added.

The alleged infighting is a worrying sign for the Congress weeks ahead of the assembly polls. It also comes months after senior Congress leaders from Mumbai wrote to party president Mallikarjun Kharge in June pushing for Gaikwad’s removal from her post as they were unhappy with her “style of functioning”. The Congress’s central leadership had then sent a strong message asking everyone to work together in the larger interest of the party.

Gaikwad, however, denied there was any dispute regarding candidate selection. “We have taken a decision unanimously. All three members of the committee have signed on the final list of candidates, which has also been sent to the party leadership,” she said.

Jagtap, in his response, also said, "We have already decided the names unanimously and there is no dispute over the candidature."

Meanwhile, the Congress has been allotted 10 seats from Mumbai so far in the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s seat-sharing pact, party insiders said. The 10 seats are Colaba, Mumbadevi, Dharavi, Sion-Koliwada, Vandre West, Chandivali, Andheri West, Malad West, Charkop and Kandivali. Around 15 seats have been cleared for Shiv Sena (UBT), while the remaining nine are still in dispute, including Byculla, Kurla, Versova, Vile Parle, Mulund, Vandre East, Anushakti Nagar, and Ghatkopar West.