RPI panel to decide on Cong-NCP tie-up

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">PUNE: The Republican Party of India (RPI) has appointed a committee to decide whether it should sever its alliance with the Congress-NCP combine and contest the forthcoming assembly polls on its own.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">This comes in the wake of discontent over the denial of a ministerial post in the Union cabinet to RPI president and MP, Ramdas Athavale, and the Congress-NCP''s recent overtures to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Speaking to TNN, Athavale denied that the party was applying pressure tactics to get him a ministerial berth in the Union government.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"I am not hankering after a minister''s post. Should it be offered to me, I will put it before the committee, which will take the final decision," he added.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The recent Lok Sabha poll results indicated that the BSP had eaten into a large chunk of the RPI''s Dalit base and had engineered the defeat of RPI and Congress candidates in Vidharbha and Marathwada.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">RPI state president Sumantrao Gaikwad told TNN that the decision was taken at the party''s recent conclave in Lonavla, after workers demanded that the party contest the assembly polls on its own strength in order to "make the Congress-NCP aware of their might".</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">He said the prevailing sentiment among RPI workers was that the Congress-NCP combine was "using them to garner Dalit votes".</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"After consulting the party''s district units, the committee will submit a report on whether the RPI should continue its alliance with the Congress-NCP for the forthcoming assembly polls, or fight it alone," Gaikwad revealed.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">It will also review the current political situation and chalk out a plan of action for the assembly polls, he added.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Pointing out that the RPI had not got the required share in power, during years of alliance with the Congress, Gaikwad said the denial of a cabinet berth to Athavale and the NCP''s recent overtures to the BSP was the last straw as far as party workers were concerned.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"Instead of taking a hasty decision in this regard, the party''s working committee and Athavale decided to appoint a 10-member committee to study the matter," he added.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The committee comprises Gaikwad, party general secretaries Avinash Mahatekar and Rupesh Thulkar, working president Pritam Shegaonkar, MLC Dayanand Mhaske Guruji, M.D. Shewale, ex-MLA Anil Gondane, ex-Nagpur mayor Anil Gondane, central executive committee member, advocate Dayanand Mohite and women''s wing chief Jyoti Lanjewar.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Mahatekar said the committee''s report will be submitted to the party working committee in mid-July. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">It will be taken up for discussion at the workers'' conclave in Mumbai on August 5, where the party''s stance in the assembly polls will be announced.</span></div> </div>