Rahul Gandhi may meet Uddhav during Mumbai visit in mid-May

In an attempt to stem dissidence within the state unit, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Mumbai in mid-May to meet party legislators and functionaries

In an attempt to stem dissidence within the state unit, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Mumbai in mid-May to meet party legislators and functionaries. The former Congress president may also call upon chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ANI File Photo

Congress legislators who had visited New Delhi earlier this month to voice their disgruntlement at the affairs of the party’s state unit and the Congress ministers in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government had been given this assurance by Gandhi’s close aides.

“Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Mumbai in the second or third week of May,” a Congress minister told HT. He said the schedule was likely to be communicated to the Mumbai Congress soon.

Though it is an alliance partner of the Congress in Maharashtra, Sena is not part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Sena leaders like Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut are openly pitching for Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar to lead the UPA, in what is seen as an attempt to undercut the position of Congress as a natural leader of any anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front.

Bhai Jagtap, president, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee, said while Gandhi was due to visit the city, the dates had not been finalised yet. “There are chances that the programme may be finalised when our state unit in-charge HK Patil comes to Mumbai on Thursday.” Jagtap, however, said they had no information if Gandhi was planning to meet the CM.

An office-bearer of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee said Gandhi was expected to hold closed door meetings with party legislators and functionaries.

Earlier this month, 22 Congress legislators met party president Sonia Gandhi to voice their concerns over Issues like the pending election to the position of the speaker of the assembly and stepmotherly treatment in allocation of funds, and to complain against some party ministers, who they alleged did not pay attention to the requests of Congress MLAs. The meeting was also attended by Suresh (Balu) Dhanorkar, the sole Congress MP from Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha.

Though these Congressmen were unable to meet Rahul, his close aide K.C. Venugopal, Rajya Sabha MP and the powerful general secretary (organisation), had assured them that he would visit Maharashtra soon.

Congress leaders in Maharashtra are upset at their ally NCP stealing a march over them and gradually trying to eat into the party’s political and social base. The weakening of the authority of the Central leadership in the wake of the party’s successive electoral reverses, factionalism in the state unit, and the perception that the NCP and Sena are trying to dominate Congress, have also led to unease in the ranks. Congress leaders are also perturbed at the delay in making appointments to various state-run corporations, which act as sinecures for legislators and leaders who have not been accommodated as ministers and in party positions.