Pune: The Congress party has decided not to change any city president until the upcoming state assembly elections, announced Ramesh Chennithala, the party’s Maharashtra in-charge. This decision aims to maintain stability and focus on the forthcoming electoral battle.
With the state assembly elections just three months away, the Congress party, buoyed by its recent success in the Lok Sabha elections along with the Maha Vikas Aghadi, is gearing up to secure a similar victory in the assembly elections.
Preparations are in full swing, with K.C. Venugopal, General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee, and Ramesh Chennithala conducting a comprehensive review of the election strategy.
The review session saw the participation of key leaders, including Pradesh President Nana Patole, Congress Legislative Party Leader Balasaheb Thorat, and Leader of the Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar.
During the meeting, Chennithala emphasized that no changes would be made to the city president positions until the assembly elections conclude.
This clarification comes in response to recent demands from some former Congress corporators for a change in Pune’s city leadership. Several former office bearers, state branch members, and ex-corporators traveled to Mumbai on July 11 to submit a written complaint to the party leadership. They demanded a new appointment for the city president position before the upcoming Assembly elections.
Notable attendees at the meeting included Congress City President Arvind Shinde, former MLA Balasaheb Shivarkar, Anand Rao Gadgil, Deepti Chaudhary, Kamal Vyavahare, former corporator Vaishali Marathe, Sujata Shetty, Lata Rajguru, Rafiq Sheikh, Mehboob Nadaf, Ajit Darekar, Sangeeta Tiwari, Nandlal Diwar, Santosh Arde, and Sujit Yadav.
Despite favorable conditions for the Congress party both nationally and at the state level, the party had suffered a significant defeat in the 2019 elections by 350,000 votes. However, this time, the deficit was reduced by 125,000 to 150,000 votes, indicating voter support in Pune for the Congress.