Maharashtra congress leaders to meet AICC Brass

Amid rumblings in the Maharashtra Opposition politics following the split in the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), a group of senior state Congress leaders are arriving in Delhi for discussions over the next couple of days with the All India Congress Committee brass. The meeting comes in the wake of an increasing demand from a section of the senior Maharashtra Congress leaders for the removal of Nana Patole from the post of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president.

The meeting between the AICC and PCC representatives is expected to discuss the post-NCP split situation in Maharashtra and the preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 2024 and the state assembly elections. The meeting, incidentally, is taking place in the backdrop of reports of BJP's attempts to poach some Congress MLAs. Congress has 45 MLAs in the Maharashtra assembly.

Though the state Congress started as the smallest partner when the MVA was launched in late 2019, along with the Shiv Sena and NCP, the subsequent splits in the two alliance partners now make the Congress currently the largest Opposition party in the assembly and thus the natural claimant for the post of the Leader of the Opposition. AICC and PCC leaders are expected to discuss the matter.


The recent split in the NCP has given a new dimension to the internal demand within the state Congress for Patole's removal. Some party leaders say the evident poaching spree of the BJP could make the simmering discontent against the state Congress chief a potential risk if not addressed.