Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi ordered state chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and party leaders that they should take into confidence district presidents, and disclose to them the decisions that will be taken by the state government before the Opposition tries to grab credit for it. He also reprimanded MPCC state chief Manikrao Thakre for being lax, and said that the party should contest elections independently and work hard towards winning maximum seats.
On Wednesday, Mr Gandhi met district presidents and party workers of western Maharashtra, Konkan and North Maharashtra region at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Sports Complex in Balewadi at Pune. Mr Thakre and Mr Chavan shared the dais with Mr Gandhi. According to sources from Congress, Mr Gandhi listened to complaints from party workers that the ministers never attended to problems of party office-bearers and ignored them. They also complained that the government decisions were never conveyed to them, as a result of which, many a times the Opposition managed to take credit for decisions taken by the Congress-led government.
Senior members of Assembly, who were present in the meeting, said that Mr Gandhi took serious cognisance of the complaints. He ordered party leaders, who are serving ministerial posts in the state government, that they should respect party workers.
Source also said that Mr Gandhi strictly indicated that ministers should take meetings with block and district workers once a month. ‘I could visit any meeting without prior intimations,’ Mr Gandhi warned, said the source.
Meanwhile, Mr Thakre, without naming Congress ally NCP, said that the alliance partner had betrayed the Congress in local body elections. “There is a need to contest independently,” he said. To this, Mr Gandhi said that everybody is alleging that the NCP will be the reason for Congress’ loss, but no one mentions the Opposition party. According to the source, Mr Gandhi added, “If you want to contest independently, accept the challenge to win 300 seats for Congress across the country.” After the meeting, the Gandhi scion left for New Delhi.