Nagpur, Dec 20 (PTI) Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Friday said the party’s state unit will soon have a new chief as he has asked their central leadership to relieve him of the post.
Patole was speaking to reporters on the premises of the Vidhan Bhavan in Nagpur, where the Winter Session of the state legislature is underway.
He said a decision on the new Maharashtra Congress chief will be taken soon. “We have authorised the party’s central leadership to name the new leader,” he said.
Patole said he has asked the party high command to relieve him as the state Congress chief since he has been holding the post for four years.
He said their legislature party leader would also be named soon.
Following the Congress’ worst-ever defeat in the assembly elections in Maharashtra, party sources had earlier claimed that Patole had requested the central leadership to relieve him of the responsibility of the organisational post.
Patole, however, had clarified last week that he had not tendered resignation and rumours were being spread.
In the recently held assembly polls, the ruling Mahayuti registered a resounding victory and retained power in the state, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi suffered a drubbing, winning 46 seats, of which Congress managed just 16 seats.
Patole retained his Sakoli seat with a margin of just 208 votes.
After Fadnavis' 'urban Naxals in Cong's Bharat Jodo Yatra' comment, Patole seeks list from him
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Friday asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to provide a list of "urban Naxal" organisations that took part in the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra.
His demand came a day after Fadnavis told the assembly that 40 of the 180 outfits that took part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra were named as frontal organisations when the Congress-(undivided) NCP ruled Maharashtra and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power at the Centre.
These organisations campaigned for the Maha Vikas Aghadi, of which the Congress is a part, in the recent state assembly polls, the CM had further said.
Patole, in his letter to Fadnavis, said there are several social organisations in Maharashtra that are working for the welfare of the poor and common citizens, adding that these organisations as well as intellectual senior citizens took part in Bharat Jodo Yatra to protect and safeguard democracy.
"It is wrong to label them as urban Naxals. You said these organisations directly or indirectly work for Naxals. I request you to provide me the list of such organisations and those heading them," Patole said in his letter to Fadnavis.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)