Nana Patole appointed Maharashtra Cong chief

The Congress on Friday appointed Nana Patole as the president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.

Patole’s appointment comes a day after he resigned as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly. Soon after taking over, Patole said that his intent was to turn the Congress into the “Number 1” party in the state.

“The Congress president has appointed Nana Patole as the new president of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee,” the party said in a statement.

Patole will replace Balasaheb Thorat, who had an 18-month stint at the helm of the state Congress and is presently Maharashtra’s revenue minister.

“I will live up to the faith and trust shown in me by party leaders. My aim is to turn the Congress into the Number 1 party in the state,” Patole said.

The party, meanwhile, also appointed six working presidents as part of its organisational rejig.

It has also appointed 10 vice presidents including former Rajya Sabha member Hussain Dalwai.

With the 57-year-old Patole at the helm, the party high command will look to him to bring some spunk into the otherwise staid leadership of the state Congress, which has not been able to match up with its more aggressive alliance partners NCP and Shiv Sena.

Patole, a four time MLA, has had his share of party hopping making his electoral debut in 1999 on Congress ticket in the Maharashtra Assembly. He subsequently moved over to the BJP in 2009. In 2014 fighting on a BJP ticket he defeated former Union minister Praful Patel in his bastion Gondia.

He however became one of the first BJP MPs to speak out against Prime Minister Narendra Modi which led to his ouster from the BJP forcing his return to the Congress fold in December 2017.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, he had unsuccessfully contested against Union minister Nitin Gadkari.