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Congress loyalists gun for MPCC chief

Even while leader of the Opposition, Sharad Pawar, is in London, the loyalist lobby in Maharashtra has requested the party high command to sack Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ranjit Deshmukh and leaders of the Opposition in the state assembly and council, Madhukar Pichad and Chhagan Bhujbal, respectively. All three are Pawar loyalists.

Bhujbal too is in London along with Pawar who is expected to return to Delhi only by July 2.

Congress leader Sudhir Sawant, who is in the forefront of the oust Deshmukh move, is in Delhi along with Ashok Chavan and Kripashankar Singh. Following their visit, the party high command has summoned Deshmukh and Pichad to Delhi along with Congress heavyweight Rohidas Patil to discuss the cross-voting during last week's Rajya Sabha election in which Congress president Sonia Gandhi's nominee Ram Pradhan was defeated.

Loyalists in the state Congress are taking full advantage of the situation to create tensions between Pawar and Sonia, since Pawar was assigned the task of ensuring the Congress's victory in the election. According to the loyalist group, the high command should sack Deshmukh, Pichad and Bhujbal for failing to ensure a clean sweep by the Congress, instead of punishing the errant MLAs. This demand is being aggressively pursued by the loyalists in connivance with senior Congress leader and long-time Pawar foe, Shankarrao Chavan.

However, the loyalists' demand to replace Ranjit Deshmukh with Vilas Deshmukh is a bit intriguing. For only two years ago, Vilas Deshmukh, with support from the Shiv Sena, had rebelled against official Congress nominee during the legislative council election. Even when Vilas Deshmukh was leader of the loyalist group, he worked in close tandem with Sena chief Bal Thackeray who consistently spewed venom against the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, for which he was expelled from the Congress. It is, thus, surprising that the loyalist group is pitching for him as MPCC president even when memories of his betrayal are fresh among partymen.

Even if the loyalists' demand to replace Pichad with Anantrao Thopte and Bhujbal with Shivajirao Deshmukh, besides the MPCC president's post, may not be accepted by the high command, the loyalists are hopeful of at least one post coming their way. They are specially interested in the post of MPCC chief.

The loyalists believe that ousting Pichad as Opposition leader in the state assembly may not be an easy task but that the post of MPCC chief may be a soft target, and hence they have decided to launch an aggressive demand with the party high-command, according to sources. Even Bhujbal's ouster may find no takers in Delhi as he was not personally involved with the Rajya Sabha election.

According to one loyalist leader, Congress observer Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy's statement that only money was not responsible for Pradhan's defeat, was tantamount to acknowledging that Pichad and Deshmukh failed to handle their responsibilities.

With the loyalist group on a roll, it is expected that some heads will roll at the state level. Besides, senior leaders like S B Chavan and others in Delhi are likely to put their weight behind the loyalists' demands.

Translated by Prasanna D Zore from the Marathi media

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