Cong’s Wadettiwar, Patole in war of words

Nagpur: The differences between top Congress leaders have come out into the open after the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) elections ended recently, say party activists.
State president Nana Patole and senior leader Vijay Wadettiwar were engaged in a bitter war of words after the former dismissed Prakash Deotale from the Chandrapur district president’s post after accusing him of forging an alliance with the opposition parties.
As Wadettiwar advised all party leaders to follow restraint while speaking about each other, Patole countered by saying that he will respond to the former in a “closed room”. Wadettiwar then openly challenged him that there was “no one in the party’s state unit who could decide his fate in a closed room”.
Wadettiwar then conducted a meeting with party dissidents expelled by Patole at his Ramdaspeth residence on Tuesday.
Importantly, it was attended by another senior leader Sunil Kedar. The party office-bearers expressed anguish over the unilateral action by Patole, without consulting them. They also alleged that the dissidents were expelled as they were Wadettiwar’s supporters.
Devtale also questioned Patole why action was taken only in Chandrapur when there was an unnatural alliance in 22 districts of the state. He said that he will meet party president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi and apprise him of Patole’s dictatorial style of working.