Congress city unit remains divided despite change of guard

NAHIK: Mahatma Gandhi's birth and death anniversaries seem to have become rallying points for the warring groups within the city unit of the Congress party to display disagreement with each other, the latest one being the death anniversary function of the Mahatma on January 30.
Over the past three years, when Akash Chhajed was appointed city Congress president, his detractors within the party, including former city chief Dinkar Patil and former minister of state Shobha Bachhav, had been spearheading campaigns to remove him.The dissident group had been boycotting Gandhi's birth and death anniversary functions and organising parallel events instead to honour him.
Apart from that, members of the rival group, who felt that Chhajed has isolated them and the seniors in the party were not being respected by his coterie, had also met senior Congress leaders in Mumbai to seek Chhajed's ouster. He, in turn, had failed to reconcile with the seniors and promote unity.
In July last year, the acrimony led to an ugly show of altercations during the visit of All India Congress Committee general secretary Shyoraj Walmiki. When he called a meeting of party workers and leaders at the party office, a large group of workers and leaders decided to boycott it. They all waited at the government rest house to meet him separately to air their grievances against Chhajed.
Annoyed with the open display of dissent even by the senior local leaders, Walmiki said the party would not tolerate groupism and promised to sort out the issue. Later, he told the dissenting group - including former minister of state Shobha Chhajed, MLA Nirmala Gavit, MLA Manikrao Kokate, former chairperson of the standing committee of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) Uddhav Nimse and corporator Dinkar Patil - to be patient and bury the hatchet. Bhai Jagtap, in-charge of party affairs in Nashik, also visited the city and spoke to the warring groups, but in vain. The delegations of the dissenting Congressmen petitioned Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Manikrao Thakre on the issue.
Finally, the party decided to change guard and corporator Ashwini Boraste was appointed as the new city president last week. The move was expected to quell dissent and ensure amity within the city unit. But things went from bad to worse.
The first meeting under her leadership was scheduled for January 30, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. However, not just the dissenting group, but even Chhajed and his supporters remained absent. Bhai Jagtap, who was expected to visit Nashik, could not do so due to some unforeseen circumstances. In his absence, his emissary Sachin Sathe arrived from Mumbai to appoint Boraste as the city chief.
Nevertheless, fresh attempts are now being made to seal the fissures. Jagtap is expected to visit Nashik next week to talk to the warring groups and appeal for unity in the run-up to the Lok Sabha and state assembly polls.
Incidentally, Congress is on a slippery wicket in the city as well as the district as compared to its ally, the National Congress Party. In the NMC elections held in 2012, the strength of Congress in the civic body came down from 21 (in 2007) to 15, while that of the NCP went up from 17 to 20. Besides, in Nashik district, of the 15 assembly constituencies, Congress has been able to win only two, vis-à-vis NCP bagging three, Shiv Sena four, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena three and BJP, Jansurajya Paksha and independents bagging one each.
Meanwhile, a section of Congressmen is demanding that the Nashik Lok Sabha seat, currently represented by ally NCP (with Sameer Bhujbal as the MP), be taken over by the Congress in the ensuing polls. Although it is highly unlikely that the NCP would let go of its existing constituency, especially when Chhagan Bhujbal's nephew is representing it, some local Congressmen have been consistently pressing for the demand. Those in favour of the demand belong to the Maratha community that feels dominated by the Bhujbal clan, which belongs to the Mali community, other backward classes community.
Despite the change in leadership, Congress continues to be divided as ever and its leaders are perpetually at each other's throats for power.