24 June,2024 02:48 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Varsha Gaikwad. File Photo
As many as 16 senior leaders of the Mumbai Congress have reportedly demanded to replace its city unit chief, Varsha Gaikwad, to strengthen the organisation ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls. The polls are due in October this year.
According to PTI sources, the Congress leaders feel that Gaikwad, who recently won the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha seat, will not have time to work at the organisational level. They have objected to her style of functioning.
These leaders, in a letter dated June 16, have sought time from the Congress leadership to discuss the rejuvenation of the party in Mumbai ahead of the assembly elections and the Mumbai civic polls, which are overdue.
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Signatories to the letter include Rajya Sabha MP and Congress Working Committee member Chandrakant Handore, former city party chiefs Janardhan Chandurkar and Bhai Jagtap, senior leaders Naseem Khan, Suresh Shetty, Madhu Chavan, Charansingh Sapra, Zakir Ahmed, and Maharashtra Congress treasurer Amarjit Manhas, reported PTI.
As per the PTI sources, most of these leaders reached Delhi to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leaders KC Venugopal and Rahul Gandhi to discuss how to strengthen the party in the city.
A meeting related to Maharashtra is reportedly scheduled for tomorrow.
"Recently, at a protest in connection with the UGC-NET exam chaos, Gaikwad did not call all party leaders at the city unit office. Hence, they had to stage a separate protest in the suburbs," a source told PTI.
"It is now 13 months since she became the city unit head, but she has not spearheaded any substantial activity to galvanize the party cadre," the source told PTI.
Mumbai The North Lok Sabha seat's Congress candidate, Bhushan Patil, has also claimed he received no help from the city party unit.
"Patil has also complained that he did not get a lead in the Malad assembly segment (in the Lok Sabha poll) held by Congress MLA Aslam Sheikh," the source told PTI.
In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls, the Congress won only 4 of the 36 seats in Mumbai.
During the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, the Congress bagged 1 of the 2 seats it contested in the city.
