Senior Congress leaders want Patole replaced as Maharashtra chief

Senior Congress leaders in Maharashtra have sent feelers to the party brass to replace its state unit chief Nana Patole who, they claim, is whimsical and who does not take everyone along in the party.

While state Congress leaders have been trying to impress upon the Congress high command to shunt out Patole for a while, it has now gained traction after the Satyajeet Tambe fiasco. Satyajeet, once a close aide of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, filed his nomination as an independent MLC and won after allegedly being denied a Congress ticket. Tambe has targeted Patole for giving wrong AB forms for him to file his nomination and said the attempts to create hurdles in his nomination was also meant to target his uncle, senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat.

Thorat, incidentally, till the recent Satyajeet Tambe fiasco, was being seen by many in the party as the strongest contender to replace Patole if the Congress top brass decides on it. "Patole has not been able to take the party along. He has been sidelining Congress leaders perceived to be from other camps. He has been having frequent issues with Congress workers and NCP leadership in the state rather than the BJP," said a Congress leader.


The move to get Patole out would not be easy especially as the latter, according to a few Congress leaders, has built a favourable equation with Rahul Gandhi during the Maharashtra leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra. Patole was one of the few leaders who walked along with Rahul during the entire Maharashtra yatra.