When bastions start falling

Vilasrao Deshmukh’s Latur, Ashok Chavan’s Nanded and Balsaheb Thorat and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s Ahmednagar were some of the areas where the party continued to do well despite its dwindling fortunes.

In the past three decades, as the Congress ceded its space to other parties in the state, a few bastions stood out for the party. Vilasrao Deshmukh’s Latur, Ashok Chavan’s Nanded and Balsaheb Thorat and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s Ahmednagar were some of the areas where the party continued to do well despite its dwindling fortunes. Things however seem to be changing. These strongholds have not remained invincible.

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With the untimely demise of Deshmukh, Congress’s grip on Latur seems to have weakened. Ahmednagar did not remain a stronghold as Vikhe-Patil and his son Sujay hopped on the BJP bandwagon ahead of the 2019 elections. The party organisation there was largely dominated by Vikhe-Patil and Thorat families even though the two clans did not see eye to eye. Now, with Satyajeet Tambe rebelling against the Congress and publicly seeking support of the BJP, there are speculations that his maternal uncle Thorat himself could be on his way to BJP. Significantly, Thorat, who is recovering from a fractured shoulder, has remained mum on the Satyajeet issue. His detractors within the party point out that he could have issued a statement clarifying his position but he hasn’t done so. His close aides, however, are ruling out any possibility of him parting ways with Congress. Thorat is one of the top Congress leaders in the state. AICC in charge of Maharashtra, H K Patil, often consults him before taking any major decisions related to organisational matters. It was Thorat who was coordinator for Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Maharashtra. Besides, his bete noire, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil is already in the BJP and is the state revenue minister. In this background, crossing over to the BJP seems highly unlikely, they say. In fact, Satyajeet’s rebellion has more to do with power tussle within the family. According to them, Thorat is likely to hand over reigns of his assembly constituency, Sangamner, to his daughter Jayashree, a doctor by profession but who is now active in local politics. Sensing that he did not have scope in Thorat camp, Satyajeet seems to have opted for better options in the opposite camp, they say.

Errors that have cost Congress dearly

The embarrassment that the Congress faced in the legislative council election as its candidate Sudhir Tambe did not file his nomination so that his son could contest as an independent has once again shown the kind of errors the party is making. The party chose not to field a “dummy candidate” as has been the norm. A dummy candidate is fielded as a backup so that a party nominee will be in the fray in case there is some problem with the candidature of the designated candidate. Such a candidate withdraws their nomination after the official candidate is finalised. The lack of such a simple precaution has surprised many. Earlier, the party made a major strategic mistake when it made Nana Patole resign as speaker of the assembly to take over as state Congress president despite opposition by MVA partners who had raised a red flag over the move. NCP was of the opinion that holding elections for the speaker’s post would mean taking a risk. Congress ignored the advice of its allies and Patole resigned. When the Shiv Sena split, there was no speaker in the assembly and the issue was handled by deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal. The rebel MLAs challenged his decision and the case is now pending in the Supreme Court. Things would have been different had Patole or any MVA nominee been there in the speaker’s chair, feel several MVA leaders.

The order that could make life easier for bureaucrats

A government resolution issued this month asking the state administration not to consider the remarks passed by chief minister, deputy chief minister or any ministers as a final decision, has become a talking point. The GR says the concerned officers should examine the rules and legality before taking a decision even after casual remarks put by CM or ministers on applications or memorandums. According to insiders in the ruling camp, the step was taken as the bureaucrats were complaining of pressure from ruling party MLAs, especially from the Shinde faction, to issue orders on the basis of remarks passed by the CM or ministers on their letters.