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Some leaders from Pune unit of Congress supporting Girish Bapat, says Sanjay Balgude
Balgude has sent a letter to Ashok Chavan, the state unit president of the Congress party, in this regard
Sanjay Balgude, secretary, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee has alleged that some of the leaders from the city unit of the Congress party, including Ramesh Bagwe are supporting guardian minister Girish Bapat from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and are working as per his directions.
Balgude has sent a letter to Ashok Chavan, the state unit president of the Congress party, in this regard. He has demanded that a warning should be issued to these leaders, apart from instructing them to lodge agitations against Bapat.
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on January 18 had said that Bapat had misused his position, flouted norms by restoring the licence of a blacklisted fair price shop (FPS) in Beed district.
It is in this background that Balgude wrote a letter to Chavan.
Balgude said that though Court had slammed the guardian minister and had given a ruling to cancel Bapat’s decision, the city unit of the Congress Party is not agitating over the issue.
“ When Congress and NCP were ruling the city, for every incident, BJP would demand the resignation of the then Gaurdian minister Ajit Pawar. Now, the court is saying that Bapat is guilty but even then the city unit of the Congress party is not staging a protest,” he said.
Balgude said that while BJP had demanded the resignation of then guardian minister Ajit Pawar after the Maval firing incident, the local Congress leaders had not demanded Bapat’s resignation neither after Bhima Koregoan violence nor after the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court pulled him up recently.
Bapat could not be reached for comment on the issue, despite repeated attempts.
‘NCP agitated against Bapat but Congress keep mum’
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) agitated against Guardian Minister Girish Bapat on January 20 and demanded his resignation after the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on January 19 had said that Bapat had misused his position, flouted norms by restoring the licence of a blacklisted fair price shop (FPS) in Beed district.
Chetan Tupe, president, city unit, NCP city said that though BJP is claiming that their government is transparent, the chief minister always gives a clean chit to ministers facing allegations. “Now that the court has exposed the BJP government and has slammed Bapat for restoring the licence of a blacklisted PDS shop, the chief minister must ask Bapat to resign and take necessary action against him as per the law,” he said.
While NCP is agitating against the BJP, the city unit of the Congress is remaining calm.
