Rahul Gandhi appealed BJP and people to forget the differences and unite for the country, but his own party fellow men in Maharashtra are indulging in internal fightigning over the maligning image of Congress legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat and denying AB form to Congress leader Satyajit Tambe in MLC elections.
Congress legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat has reportedly written the Congress high-command for dragging his name in Satyajit Tame’s AB form controversy and this issue was wrongly used to malign his and party image. Thorat said that he personally hurt and pained the way the Maharashtra Congress leaders are washing their laundry in public and creating suspicion about his loyalty towards the congress party.
“Each party has their internal issues, but these issues should be dealt with internally. But some of our Congress leaders are bringing these internal issues into the public domain that should be stopped. The internal issues should not be used to settle the personal scores against each other,” Thorat lamented.
Balasaheb Thorat is maternal uncle of Satyajit Tambe and Satyajit Tambe was keen to contest the MLC elections on his father sitting MLC Dr Sudhir Tambe’s seat in Nashik Graduate constituency. Satyajit Tambe won this election by record margin.
“But Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole and other Congress leaders from Maharashtra and Delhi denied that proposal of nominating Satyajit Tambe and announced Dr Sudhir Tambe’s candidature. This put Thorat in trouble and pushed his relation Satyajit Tambe close to BJP and that created suspicion over credibility and loyalty of Balasaheb Thorat as well. This was done deliberately to distance Thorat from Gandhi family over ideological commitment,” said a person who is privy with this development.
Explaining this, sources further added that Maharashtra has done the wonderful job in Bharat Jodo yatra and Rahul Gandhi’s Buldhana rally was mega successful. “The Congress party leaders including Rahul Gandhi credited this success to Bharat Jodo Balasaheb Thorat and it was visible. This credit to Thorat disturbed many top leaders of congress in Maharashtra therefore this Satyajit Tambe issue is congress man made issue against Thorat to damage him further,” source added requesting anonymity.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole refused to speak on this issue. Earlier Maharashtra Congress chief spokesperson Atul Namade blamed Satyajit Tambe for his closeness to the BJP leader due to the threat of central agencies.
“If the Congress leadership did not intervene and resolve this simmering issue within the Maharashtra Congress, then this will unfold in a big way and that will have larger repercussions and it will not be good for Congress party when it is time to unit and fight against the BJP,” said senior congress leader requested anonymity.