New Delhi: Amid the ongoing tussle with Congress' Nana Patole, party leader Balasaheb Thorat on Wednesday said that he was never upset with the party, reported news agency ANI. "Who said I am upset with anyone? I came to know about this only through the media. I have never expressed that I am upset," said Thorat when asked if he is still upset with state party chief Nana Patole quoted by ANI.
For the past few days, there have been discussions in the political circle that senior Congress leader and former state president Balasaheb Thorat is unhappy with the state leadership.
Thorat had resigned as leader of the legislature party (CLP) and written a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge criticizing the working style of state unit chief Nana Patole amid conflict over the poll twist caused by the Tambes.
Balasaheb Thorat stated on Monday that his nephew and newly elected MLC Satyajit Tambe worked extremely hard during the state leg of the "Bharat Jodo Yatra" led by Rahul Gandhi.
The official Congress candidate for the Nashik division graduates seat, Sudhir Tambe, declined to participate in the most recent MLC polls, allowing his son Satyajit Tambe to run successfully as an independent. As a result, Congress was left out in the cold.
Thorat was giving a speech at a lavish reception hosted by his supporters in his hometown of Ahmednagar, Sangamner. He arrived there after spending more than a month recovering from a shoulder injury.
Thorat thanked his supporters and stated that "a lot of politics" occurred during that time.
"I would like to say the Maharashtra leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra was the best. I was entrusted with the responsibility of coordination, while Nana Patole was (state unit) president. All leaders and workers took part in the yatra enthusiastically and in overwhelming numbers," he said.
Thorat said that Satyajit Tambe's team, which decided to stay in the Congress, will miss him and praised him for the "hard work" he put in during the yatra.
Due to the MLC poll twist, the Tambes were expelled from the party.
In regards to his letter to Kharge, Thorat stated that he had written down his agony and added that the "technical error" in the ticket issue for the Nashik MLC polls would not have occurred if he had been fit.
Thorat stated that HK Patil, the All India Congress Committee's Maharashtra director, discussed the letter's contents with him during a meeting they had in Mumbai on Sunday. Delhi, the party's central leadership, took note of the letter.
"Our ideology is the Congress ideology and there will be no other ideology. We will continue to work with that ideology without compromise. If there are differences in the party, it will be resolved internally. I have not gone to the media over it," he claimed.