MUMBAI: A day after losing the civic polls in Mumbai, the rift in the Mumbai Congress was laid bare after former Mumbai Congress president Bhai Jagtap asked Varsha Gaikwad, the current president, to take responsibility for the debacle and step down. Jagtap was handed a show-cause notice for violating party discipline and ethics.
The Congress contested 152 out of the 227 seats in the BMC elections, and won only 24 seats, its lowest tally ever. In the 2017 BMC elections, the party had won 31 seats.
In a statement given to a news agency (IANS), Jagtap on Saturday said that Gaikwad would have to take responsibility for the defeat. “A person cannot become big merely by having a position,” he said. “Leadership becomes big by delivering results. (sic) Varsha Gaikwad will have to take responsibility for the outcome and will have to resign from the position.”
Jagtap’s public remarks did not go down well with the Congress leadership, and received a show-cause notice from U B Venkatesh, AICC secretary who is also in charge of Mumbai and Konkan regions. “Matters relating to organisational functioning, leadership, and internal differences are required to be raised strictly within internal forums and not through public or media platforms,” stated the notice issued to Jagtap on Saturday. The notice added that such conduct undermined the party’s collective leadership, damaged its image and gave rise to avoidable confusion and indiscipline at a time when unity was of paramount importance.
Jagtap did not respond to calls and messages from HT.
Sachin Sawant, chief spokesperson of the Mumbai Congress, said, “…given the extremely adverse circumstances, our performance was satisfactory.”