Ashok Jagtap appointed new Mumbai Congress chief

The Congress leadership on Saturday appointed Ashok Jagtap as Mumbai Congress president and Charan Singh Sapra as working president

The Congress leadership on Saturday appointed Ashok Jagtap as Mumbai Congress president and Charan Singh Sapra as working president. Jagtap succeeded veteran leader Eknath Gaikwad, who was handling the party unit as its acting president after Milind Deora quit as the city unit chief, following the party’s defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Ashok Jagtap (Kunal Patil/HT FILE)

With elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) 14 months away, the city unit of the party had to have a chief as it had been without a full-time president for more than a year. Jagtap, who is known as Bhai Jagtap in political circles, is a trade union leader-turned politician and former legislator, while Sapra began with the party as a student leader. Jagtap is also known as a Maratha community leader

HK Patil, the party’s in-charge in Maharashtra, had recently held discussions with city and state leaders on selecting the new city unit chief to revive the party organisation ahead of the 2022 Mumbai civic polls. Earlier this week, all key Mumbai Congress leaders were summoned to Delhi by the Congress’s top brass to discuss the issue.

The party also employed technology to get feedback from functionaries in the city to appoint the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee chief.

A name for the next chief was sought through an interactive voice response call with its functionaries.

Besides the feedback from around 450 Congress functionaries via a call, other inputs were also sought from various quarters before the decision was finalised, senior Congress functionaries said.

A senior party leader said the leadership decided to appoint a Marathi face as its Mumbai unit head. The party leadership has also tried to accommodate different factions within the party by appointing their leaders in key positions. Mohammad Arif Naseem Khan, a former minister, will head the campaign committee, while Amarjit Singh Manhans will head the coordination committee. Suresh Shetty has been appointed head of manifesto and publication committee. Khan, Manhans and Shetty were aspirants for the city unit chief’s post.

Jagtap was not available for his reaction.

Sapra said: “Our priority is to rejuvenate the party’s organisation in Mumbai and ensure the party wins the upcoming Mumbai civic polls.”

Mumbai-based political analyst Surendra Jondhale said the appointment of Jagtap could be a fresh start for the party, which has had a bad run, with respect to its city chief, in the past few years. “Bhai Jagtap has solid grass-root level contacts, a strong organisational background and good understanding of city politics as he was a trade unionist. A reason for his selection could be because he is not seen attached to any factions within the city Congress outfit. It is a good start for Congress and Jagtap,” he said.

However, Jagtap’s trade unionist background could be a hindrance for him to connect with the corporate class in Mumbai. “Since the time of SK Patil to Murli Deora to Gurudas Kamat to Milind Deora, all Mumbai Congress bosses had excellent relations with the Mumbai Inc. It will have to be seen how Jagtap can manage to connect with corporates, since he was always on the other side divide, given his background,” Jondhale added.