Ex-congress MLA quits party post

MUMBAI: The candidature of Imran Pratapgarhi for the Rajya Sabha seat has not gone down well with the leaders in the Maharashtra unit of Congress. On Tuesday, former MLA Ashish Deshmukh resigned from his position of general secretary in protest against the party’s decision to field an “outsider”.

“Imposing an outsider [like Pratapgrarhi] will not benefit the party in terms of growth. This is the injustice done to the general Congress workers in Maharashtra and hence, I am resigning from the post I hold in the state unit of the party,” Deshmukh said in his resignation letter sent to party president Sonia Gandhi.

This development comes ahead of Congress’ two-day Chintan Shivir (brainstorm session) at Shirdi in Ahmednagar on June 1 and 2.

Congress has fielded Pratapgarhi, party’s national head of minority cell and a resident of Uttar Pradesh, for the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled to be held on June 10. On Monday, state Congress chief Nana Patole supported Pratapgarhi’s nomination.

However, many party leaders have expressed their displeasure over the decision. Former actor and party worker Nagma and national spokesperson Pawan Khera too have expressed their disappointment over not being chosen as the party candidate.

“Imran [Pratpgarhi] has one qualification. He is a qawwal [sufi singer] and can hold mushaira [poetic symposium]. In the two-day Chintan Shivir, I would suggest holding a session where qawwali, poetry can be taught. I would be very happy if Imran could come for this session,” Deshmukh said.

Congress chief spokesperson Atul Londhe said instead of speaking out openly, Deshmukh should have raised the issue at the appropriate platform in the party.

According to senior Congress leader and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, the Congress leadership doesn’t differentiate among states and believes that the country is one. “In the last polls, P Chidambaram was elected from the state and this time, Pratapgarhi has been nominated. Maharashtra too got representation in the name of Mukul Wasnik who was nominated from Rajasthan.”

Thorat said the objective of the Shirdi session was to deliberate upon how to implement the six resolutions passed in the party’s national-level Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir held in Udaipur earlier this Month.