Mumbai: Known for his straight talk and headmaster’s demeanour, Maharashtra Congress in-charge and parliamentarian Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday took to task two of the party’s stalwarts in the state – Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and Balasaheb Thorat. He demanded to know what they had done for the Congress Party lately.
According to Congress legislators, Kharge asked the senior party leaders from Ahmednagar and Dhule what they had done for the party and the people while holding the position and enjoying privileges the party had conferred upon them.
He was speaking at a meeting held at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) on Tuesday.
The Ahmednagar district meeting was attended by Vikhe-Patil, Leader of the Opposition in the legislative Assembly, and Balasaheb Thorat, former minister and permanent invitee of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), while former ministers Rohidas Patil and Amrish Patel were present at the Dhule district meeting.
Kunal Patil, son of Rohidas Patil confirmed Kharge had helped Patil and Patel resolve their conflict.
Another legislator, who attended the meeting, requesting anonymity, said, “Kharge first sought to know Patel’s achievement while a party worker. Patel replied he had been a four-time MLA, then a minister and now, a second-time MLC. Then, Kharge asked Patil about his accomlishments. He said he had been a legislator and minister for more than 25 years. Then, Kharge warned both the leaders to resolve their differences as intra-party rivalry had cost the Congress the Dhule Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in 2014.”
Kharge also resolved the issues between Vikhe-Patil and Balasaheb Thorat, opponents in Ahmednagar for several decades. In the past, each had pitted their candidates against the other’s in Assembly constituencies in Ahmednagar, enabling the Shiv Sena and the BJP to seize control of local and cooperative bodies in the district, once a Congress bastion.
Party insiders said Kharge has decided to assign various regions of the state to the five AICC-appointed secretaries. They are Sonal Patel from Gujarat, Ashish Dua from Haryana and Sampat Kumar from Telangana and two others. “The five secretaries will interact with district presidents and party cadres at the district-level so the party can get ground-level reports,” said Kharge.