Youth Congress cadre come to blows at Dadar meet

The clash is said to have started between two groups when some functionaries complained about the functioning of the Maharashtra Youth Congress chief Kunal Raut and demanded his removal

Mumbai: A day-long meeting of youth Congress functionaries at the party headquarters in Dadar on Saturday ended up in an ugly fight with chairs being thrown around and abuses being hurled between party workers. Factionalism broke out in the presence of Congress’ youth wing’s national president B V Srinivas.

Youth Congress state vice president Shivraj More said, “We had a meeting of the state executive. We expressed our unhappiness over the functioning of Raut. A lot of arguments happened in the meeting, and suddenly there was violence.’’ (HT PHOTO)

The clash is said to have started between two groups when some functionaries complained about the functioning of the Maharashtra Youth Congress chief Kunal Raut and demanded his removal.

The fight escalated to such an extent that chairs were hurled at each other and party workers manhandled each other. Following the ruckus in the meeting, Srinivas left the venue without addressing a scheduled press conference.

Youth Congress state vice president Shivraj More said, “We had a meeting of the state executive. We expressed our unhappiness over the functioning of Raut. A lot of arguments happened in the meeting, and suddenly there was violence.’’

Another Youth Congress vice-president, Tanveer Ahmed Vidrohi, alleged that the state unit of Youth Congress was not functioning properly since Raut took over 15 months back. “We had told the leadership to look into the matter. This was the first meeting after our complaints. Raut felt that this issue will come up again. He got some workers from his father’s constituency in Nagpur. A fight started and we were attacked with chairs. Our national leader Krishna Allavaru also said that he will look into the problem.’’

Raut and his father Nitin Raut did not answer calls from HT. An aide of Raut said that the incident was planned to create trouble for the father-son duo.

Commenting on the ruckus, Congress legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat said, “When I went, everything was quiet. I don’t know what has happened. But the Youth Congress is like this.”

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee’s chief spokesperson Atul Londhe said, “They are youth and this is a display of energy and level of freedom given to them. Congress follows democratic principles. This is a mere aggressive expression of youth functionaries.”