It appears that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has borrowed the inert strategy of his former federal counterpart, Manmohan Singh: Keep quiet and cary on
It appears that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has borrowed the inert strategy of his former federal counterpart, Manmohan Singh: Keep quiet and cary on.
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With the BJP reducing most political parties to insignificance in the Lok Sabha elections, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Assam CM Tarun Gogoi have handed in their resignations. DMK’s M K Stalin, too, offered to resign from all party posts.
Within the state, Industries Minister Narayan Rane announced his resignation, after his son Nilesh lost on his home turf to Shiv Sena. But our Chief Minister remains holed up behind a wall of silence.
He has not even attempted to come out and acknowledge the Congress’ abysmal showing — a measly two of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The party has no other reliable face in the state to take on the responsibility of its rout. While there was a clamour for Manikrao Thakre to quit as the party’s state chief, Congress workers placed a chunk of the blame on the chief minister.
Left licking the dust
To put it mildly, Maharashtra voters have not been kind to the Congress. Even the two seats the party won it won by a thin margin, no more than a few thousand votes.
This has been, unarguably, the worst performance the Congress has seen in the state since its inception. Even the immoveable Priya Dutt and Milind Deora in Mumbai have lost and conceded defeat.
Despite this, Prithviraj Chavan who canvassed extensively during elections, campaigning in most of the constituencies has not made any gesture to give the impression that he assumes a modicum of responsibility for the Congress’ failure in a state that is its bastion or was.
And, it is a biting irony that one of two seats the Congress did win belongs to the scam-tainted Ashok Chavan, who the incumbent Chavan kept at an arm’s distance in the run-up to the general elections. The failing, Mr Chief Minister, is yours.