Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan on Tuesday quelled speculation on Congress president Rahul Gandhi contesting from the Nanded Lok Sabha seat in the State.

Mr. Chavan was reacting to reports about Mr. Gandhi considering dropping the Gandhi family’s traditional Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh and contesting from the Nanded seat, which has been a Congress stronghold and is viewed as a ‘safe seat’.

Mr. Chavan said, “There has been no discussion as to who will contest from Nanded. No meeting of the party’s election committee has taken place on the matter. The decision will be taken by the party high command.” Mr. Chavan was speaking on the sidelines of the party’s Jan Sangharsh Yatra in in Kankavli in Sindhudurg district.

Of the 19 elections and byelections since 1952, the Congress has retained the Nanded seat 15 times. Mr. Chavan, a former chief minister, won the seat in the 2014 election despite his party losing ground to the BJP in the State.

Mr. Chavan said, “Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi performing the ground-breaking ceremony way back in 2015, why has the BJP government taken so long to build a memorial to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar?” He said the erstwhile Congress-NCP government had first proposed the Indu Mill land to be used to build a grand memorial to Dr. Ambdekar.

Mr. Chavan said, “In this light, the BJP’s allegations that the Congress was out to grab the Indu Mill land appear utterly ridiculous to say the least.”

In a veiled attack on Konkan strongman and Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP) chief Narayan Rane, Mr. Chavan said the resurgence of the Congress in the Konkan would put an end to the ‘oppression’ endured by the residents in the region.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, alleged that the BJP had misused social media on a colossal scale during its 2014 election campaign. Mr. Vikhe-Patil said that “a state of undeclared Emergency” existed in the country today owing to the authoritarian policies of Prime Minister Modi.