Deshmukh tells party president that an outsider will not help party grow in the state
Ashish Deshmukh, general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee
The Congress’s import of a Rajya Sabha candidate from Uttar Pradesh has upset party workers in Maharashtra. The party’s state General Secretary Ashish Deshmukh quit from the post on Tuesday, telling the Congress president that the outsider will not help the party grow in the state.
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“Due to the imposition of Imran Pratapgarhi (from UP) in Maharashtra for Rajya Sabha, I am resigning from the post of general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. Imposing an outside candidate will not benefit the party in terms of growth. This is an injustice done to the general Congress workers in Maharashtra,” Deshmukh stated in his resignation letter which was shared with mediapersons on Tuesday. He said he would continue to work with the Congress party as a loyal worker and fulfil the commitments.
After working in the Congress, Deshmukh had defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014 but quit his Assembly seat and returned to Congress before the 2019 elections in which he contested unsuccessfully against the then CM Devendra Fadnavis.
The Rajya Sabha candidature issue is expected to crop up at the state unit’s two-day Nav Sankalp Shibir scheduled to take place from today (June 1) in Shirdi as many leaders have expressed, albeit off the record, their displeasure over the party’s rejection of the local leadership.
Deshmukh told mid-day that achievers and result-oriented leaders in the Maharashtra Congress were ignored by the party for a rookie Pratapgarhi who had lost his deposit in the last Lok Sabha elections in UP. “Now he wants Maharashtra’s 44 MLAs to send him to Parliament for reciting shayari and singing qawwali,” he said.
The former MLA suggested that a shayari and qawwali training session be held at the Shirdi conclave. “It will be better if Pratapgarhi personally trains party leaders,” he added.
Deshmukh, who was earlier promised a Rajya Sabha ticket, said, “Soniaji (Gandhi) had assured me. I met her 15 days ago and she asked me to not worry much. I wonder whether she was under pressure to give Pratapgarhi a party nomination.”
The leader wondered whether the party wanted to create an UP-like situation in Maharashtra. “Is there any plan to weaken the party like in UP where we have only two MLAs? All decisions are faulty and cause damage to the Congress. Nomination of a state leader could have helped the party in the forthcoming elections,” he said.
Deshmukh said the party had forgotten the resolutions from its Udaipur Conclave. “Chidambaram’s son is an MP and yet the father is given a Rajya Sabha ticket. Pramod Tiwari’s daughter is an MLA and he, too, is a Rajya Sabha candidate. Where is the ‘one family one ticket’ rule? The resolution of giving 50 per cent tickets to people below 50 years of age has also been violated.”
Deshmukh said former CM Prithviraj Chavan had suggested that a leader from Maharashtra, Mukul Wasnik, be given a ticket from Maharashtra instead of Rajasthan. mid-day has verified Chavan’s statement made at a press conference on Monday. Some other Congress leaders, including former actor Nagma Morarji and Pavan Khera had hit a discordant note over the party’s RS candidature on Monday.
State Congress president Nana Patole had said on Monday that Pratapgarhi’s candidature was a welcome step. “There is no issue within the party. If Narendra Modi can shift from Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh, why can’t Congress do it? The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are for the country,” Patole said.
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