Senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has met NCP President Sharad Pawar amid the Congress’ displeasure over the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra. The meeting of both the leaders has come at a time when there is a demand for Sharad Pawar to become the President of the UPA within the NCP. Azad, on the other hand, is among those disgruntled Congress leaders who are demanding an inclusive and collective leadership in the party.
Disgruntled Congress leaders have also been advocating for greater opposition unity to take on the BJP. However, this meeting which took place on Wednesday evening has been called by the NCP as a normal meeting. A senior NCP leader said that whenever the party president is in the capital Delhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad usually meets him during the Parliament session. Therefore it should not be given much importance.
Actually, many Congress MLAs are angry with the Maha Aghadi coalition government in Maharashtra. He has sought an appointment with party president Sonia Gandhi. These MLAs complain that the ministers are not listening to them. The most displeasure of the MLAs is with Power Minister Nitin Raut. He says that the power situation in rural areas is very bad. It can be a loss in the election.
Let us tell you that at least 25 Congress MLAs from Maharashtra have opened a front against the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. He has sought time to meet party president Sonia Gandhi to complain against Congress ministers only. He alleges that his own party ministers are not responding to his concerns. The legislators, in a letter, have urged Sonia Gandhi to intervene to ‘fix things’.
Indicating the lack of coordination in the party, the MLAs said they came to know only last week that each Congress minister was assigned three party MLAs to address their issues appropriately. Another Congress MLA said, “We came to know when HK Patil held a meeting recently that Congress ministers were allotted three MLAs each. This was apparently done a few months after the MVA government was formed. But we came to know about it only 2.5 years back. Even now no one knows which minister is associated with us.”