State Cong to meet Ambedkar on July 3

The decision was taken after the leaders met Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday at his New Delhi residence to review the party’s debacle in the recently-concluded general elections and the preparations for the Assembly elections.

Senior leaders from the state Congress unit — Manikrao Thakre and Harshwardhan Patil – will meet Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar at his residence on July 3 to make a fresh bid for an alliance for the upcoming state polls.

Thakre, the party’s former state president, said, “Harshwardhan Patil and I will meet Ambedkar on July 3 to discuss the possibility of an alliance for the Assembly elections.” (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

The decision was taken after the leaders met Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday at his New Delhi residence to review the party’s debacle in the recently-concluded general elections and the preparations for the Assembly elections.

Thakre, the party’s former state president, said, “Harshwardhan Patil and I will meet Ambedkar on July 3 to discuss the possibility of an alliance for the Assembly elections.”

The state unit has already received an approval to ally with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the elections. In 2014, the Congress and the NCP had faced defeat in the Assembly polls, after contesting independently.

“Congress is open to an alliance with VBA. We also got an in-principle approval to ally with the NCP from the Congress president. The modalities for the alliance will be decided by the state leaders in consensus with the NCP later,” said state Congress president Ashok Chavan said after meeting Gandhi.

The state leaders requested Gandhi to continue as the party president. “We have requested him to continue leading the party, but he remained silent on the issue,” said a senior leader.

Meanwhile, former parliamentarian Nana Patole resigned as the chairman of the party’s farmers’ outfit, Kisan Congress. In his resignation letter to Gandhi, Patole wrote he took the step “in respect of the Congress president”.